Ave Maria
by shadowfire
Summary: One day. Everyone you loved dead. Everything you once knew, gone. What do we do after the tragedy? How do we cope and can we move forward? Can we both be the hero and the victim? KaibaMai with a bit of MaiJonouchi
1. Chapter 1

**Ave Maria**

_Been a long road to follow  
__Been there and gone tomorrow__  
Without saying good-bye to yesterday__  
Are these memories I hold still valid__  
Or have the tears deluded them?_

She was Athena, a goddess of war, emerging from the flames, bathed in blood and dirt. Her eyes were wild but focused, daring the next man to step up and meet their demise at her metaphorical sword. Blonde hair was like ribbons, streaming every which way in the wind, forming a continuous halo that framed the sharp features covered in soot from the fire that raged behind her. She held a body close to her, dragging it to safety like a precious parcel, taking care to not harm it any further.

"She's beautiful," Jonouchi muttered, handing the magazine back to his sister who sat next to his hospital bed.

"You don't recognize her, do you?"

"Should I?"

"Geez…" Shizuka chided. "She's the Women's World Champion. She has dueled you before."

Jonouchi took another glance at the photo. He scanned his memory for someone looked like her. "I think I would remember beating someone as pretty as her."

"She beat you."

"Ah." Jonouchi sighed, leaning his head back into the pillows. "Was I humiliated?"

"I don't remember."

Jonouchi nodded, brushing his bangs out of his eyes. "Any reason why you bought this magazine?"

"Well, you said you were bored." Shizuka shrugged.

She was lying. She always was when she began to bite her lip. " When I asked for some entertainment, I am asking for some manga, not some magazine in a foreign language that I can't read!."

Her eyes lowered and he decided to pressure her into giving him some answers. "What is the real reason you bought me this magazine?"

"I thought you would be bored sitting here in the hospital all day," she mumbled.

"Why this magazine? Please don't lie to me."

Shizuka remained silent for some time, holding a silent conversation with herself over the merits of telling him the truth. Jonouchi had only just woken from his coma after a week and he didn't need to know what had led him into it. She was afraid he wasn't capable of handing it.

She looked up at him, and saw the hopeful gleam in his eyes. He was confused and desperately needing to get some answers. He trusted her to be honest with him and she was failing him.

"Jonouchi…we're not in Japan. This is America. I couldn't find anything you could read. This was the best thing I could find."

"Why are we in America?" He didn't remember and Shizuka immediately wished she hadn't started the conversation. The doctors had mentioned he might not remember certain things but to miss a segment of his life prior to the accident was painful to see. It would be a complete surprise to him when he found out, and have to relive the pain that would come from remembering.

"Tell me." He grabbed her hand and squeezed. It took all that she had not to just break down and cry right then and there.

"You had to duel here. So you came over here with a bunch of people to put on a show. Do you remember any of that?"

He shook his head and she sighed.

"Look at the front cover. That's why I bought it," she suggested.

He reached with his free hand to snatch the magazine off the coffee table. He examined it quickly and looked up at her. " What am I supposed to see?"

"Just look." He rolled his eyes at her and continued to search. He saw the pretty girl again and he wanted to say that was the reason she bought it but he knew it wasn't true. Not seeing anything, his gaze returned back to his sister.

"Look at the body."

The body that the girl was holding looked like a limp rag doll, limbs dangling, unable to support itself. Covered in blood, most of it centered on the foot and stomach, the body looked to be his age. Blonde…scruffy appearance…blue jeans, white tee…

Him.

He looked up to Shizuka who gave a curt nod, validating his fears. He sucked in breath, lifting up the sterile white sheets. He was scared to look but slowly, he peered under the sheet to see a stomach wrapped in bandages and a fat foot, tightly bound in red tinted gauze.

He screamed.

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She watched as the doctors sedated the terrified boy, who was unable to stop his screaming. To the casual observer, she appeared to look on passively but that was far from the truth. Every scream felt like someone was plunging a knife through her heart then twisting. Her face was blank, unreadable because she wasn't sure if she was allowed to revel her emotions. It wasn't like she had been friends with the kid. She was just a shadow in his life, always following him, a constant figure in his travels. She didn't matter. She wasn't welcome. But she found she didn't care. She wasn't talking to him, wasn't reminding him of what happened. She had every right to stare at the boy whose life she had saved. She deserved it.

"You should have just told him instead of hinting around the subject, " she spoke to the figure emerging from behind the door.

"It will break his heart if he knew the truth," Shizuka replied, taking a seat against the wall at the blonde's feet.

"It breaks one's heart more to not know the truth," she slid down to sit next to her.

"Mayhaps." Shizuka unzipped her purse and shifted through it to find some chocolate covered peanuts. She ripped open the pouch and after pouring some into the blonde's stretched-out hand, devoured them.

"I still don't know why you did it." Shizuka muttered, breaking the awkward silence that had filled while they had eaten.

"Neither do I."

"You must know. Why would you save the life of a complete stranger?"

"He wasn't a stranger."

"No, but he mine as well be. You never spoke to him before…"

"Why does it matter? Why does it matter that I saved him? Your brother is alive. He is alive while nearly everyone else there that day died. Shouldn't you just be happy that he is alive?" Her voice sounded agitated like she was annoyed. Shizuka suspected she had had to answer that question only too often.

"I am," she muttered. "I am grateful for what you did. I just…I need to understand. From what I got out of Kaiba…"

"Kaiba is useless."

Shizuka shot the older girl a dirty look for interrupting her again. " Kaiba mentioned…"

"You mean he stopped his superfluous ramblings of self-loathing?"

Shizuka glared, and the blonde mumbled an apology. " As I was saying, Kaiba said that Jou was stationed at the other end of the building than you. You were in a room right near the doors. You could have gotten out alive with no problem. You also had the time to save your friends' lives but instead you went the other direction for Jou. Why?"

"I…" she closed her eyes, pausing to compose an answer. " They weren't my friends."

"You were always seen with them." Shizuka shot back.

" There are no friends in Duel Monsters. Only foes needing to be destroyed."

"Why Jonouchi? Is he not your foe?" Shizuka repeated.

"He is."

"Then why did you save him?"

The blonde growled. " Why do you care? Is it not enough that your brother is alive?"

Shizuka didn't answer, and the girl climbed to her feet, gliding to the water fountain. She didn't take a sip of water, but instead let the water run over her scalp. Shizuka watched in interest as the blonde raised her head up, flipping her wet hair out of her eyes. She looked much calmer now, Shizuka realized and she hopped to her feet, strolling to stand next to Jonouchi's window aside the other girl.

"You could be like the hundreds of families out there who are preparing to put their sons and daughters into the earth, never saying how proud of them you were for the person they become," she whispered. "You could be one of the sisters who will never get to see their brother again, never apologizing for the stupid things you did for each other. You could be the girl who saw the only person she ever loved die, and now only in death, can you say the words, I love you.

"But you are not. You still have him. Does it matter why he survived? Is it so important that you know the reason to why God did not take him from you?"

"It is. He is not religious but I am. Everything that happens in life bad or good occurs for some reason. No one held his fate that day not even God. Only you."

One minute they were standing next to each other, a second later, the blonde had turned to face her, gaze pinning Shizuka literally to the wall. It hadn't occurred to her that the blonde was so much taller and muscular, almost the height of her brother. She was staring her down, and Shizuka gulped nervously.

"There. Is. No. God." She enunciated, nearly spitting in Shizuka's face. "If there was, nothing like this would have happened. He lived because I chose him to live. That is all. No hidden purpose. No other reason." The blonde was shaking with anger, and Shizuka feared that the blonde was going to slap her. She could see the hand on the hip, clenching and unclenching, and she prepared for the inevitable punch.

She heard a deep exhale and the taller girl backed away, trying to reign in her temper. Shizuka watched the blonde walk down the hall, and smiled slightly as the door for the stairs was opened and slammed ceremonially.

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His eyes opened then closed at the intrusion of sunlight in the room. He groaned and reached over to the window, being careful not to move his foot, and tugged the cord to shut the blinds. Only a thin strip of sunlight got through now, streaming across his lap and he turned the lamp on as he grabbed the magazine off the nightstand. It was the only link he had to an outside world and the only thing present that could fill in the blanks in his mind. It wasn't like he could ask the doctors what happened; they were highly unlikely to understand Japanese and he did not see Shizuka anywhere. He racked his brain for the time she had promised to return. He still couldn't remember it and he grabbed the magazine off the nightstand. He flipped to the center portion of it. It was a picture montage and he spotted himself in the first photo; the one with the blonde dragging him from the building.

He vaguely remembered her now that he was more awake as Kujaku Mai, infamous for her use of the Harpies. He had never formally met her despite that they were always competing in the same tournaments. But from what he had been told, her nature was similar to that of her monsters: beautiful and deadly. Even her features resembled that of a Harpy with seductive eyes and curvy frame. But something about the look she wore in the photograph said she wasn't nearly as weak as her looks indicated. It could have been that she was covered in blood, mostly likely little of it her own or the snarl she wore as her hand lightly lay on the gun that she had stuck in the waistband of her cut-off shorts. The decisive factor of her strength lay in the fact that his unconscious body was being dragged by her out of the rubble, and he knew for a fact he wasn't very light. He smiled at the photo, making a mental post-it note that he wanted to duel the girl. He was curious if he could actually beat her and he flipped the page, and flinched at the horror.

The second and third pictures were disgusting. It was a classroom with dead bodies littered among the books on a grimy checkered floor. Blood lay in puddles on the ground and was sprayed across the wall like an child's attempt at an abstract painting. People were lying everywhere, many faces frozen in fear as they were forced to witness their own deaths taking place.

Jonouchi wondered what had happened there. How did he tie into it? If the front picture and this one were the one and the same school, was this what gave him the foot wound? Was he being dragged from the battle that took place there? How did they all die? He didn't want to flip the page, afraid of what he might see, but the tug to understand lured him into turning the page.

Fourth picture was taken from a security camera, Jou judged, from its narrow perspective and the time date that sat in the lower right corner. It was slightly off-focus but he could see a figure in a white trench coat kneeling, clutching someone to his chest. Blood was soaking into the material and the mouth of the man was settled in a permanent howl of injustice. Jonouchi knew instantly that it was Kaiba. He almost didn't believe it; Kaiba never showed any emotion but he guessed that every stoic person had their limits before the emotional dam they held back broke.

He wondered what had caused Kaiba to break, and he focused on the figure lying in Kaiba's arms. He saw the identifying spikes and knew instantly it had to be Yugi. Only he wore all black with a single gold chain around his neck where a gold puzzle once dangled.

He swallowed, trying to remind himself that Yugi still might be alive. It was only a photo, freezing only a second of a life. Everything could change in the minute that followed it. But that second could be the one in which Yugi died.

Not wanting to dwell on that thought, he flipped to the next page, and then the next. All there was were pictures, picture after picture of people crying, of people dying, of people surviving. It freaked him out to see a picture of himself. It must have been when he had just gotten into the hospital because every exposed inch of skin seemed to be attached to some sort of tube, blood staining the white sheets. He felt oddly detached at seeing himself dying. It felt more like it was someone else and he turned the last page.

The entire mood of the photo screamed sadness seeing that it was in a graveyard. Fresh dirt lined the path, flowers plastered on every spare inch of the newly placed graves. Rain was falling as if to mourn the huge amount of life that had been lost that fateful day.

Mai was kneeling by one of the graves, tips of her white dress swimming in the muddy water. She was drenched from head to toe, dress clinging to her, its thin material exposing her black bra and thong. Normally Jonouchi would have stared at that image; it was one of the many sexual fantasies he had entertained in his daydreams over the years. But despite the provocative nature of the photo, the picture reached no other emotion in him but the despair that everyone around the world was feeling.

Her head was tilted to the sky, rain sliding down the delicate features, her own tears mixing with the rain so that it was impossible to tell where one began and ended. She seemed to be looking into the storm clouds, searching for the reason to why this all had to happened. It was singularly the most beautiful and powerful piece of artwork he had ever seen, and he regretted leaving that image.

Jonouchi expected for the pictures to end, but when he turned to the next page, all he could see was rows of tiny pictures streaming across the page. He couldn't read the names or the title of it, but he knew it had to be the photos of the people that had died. He felt sick and leaned over the garbage pail at the side of the bed in case he needed to puke. Though he gagged, he couldn't relieve the bile that had clogged up his throat, and he forcefully pulled himself up on the bed and went back to staring at the pictures.

A profound sadness filled him instantly. Though he never knew the thousands of teenagers whose pictures adorned the page, he felt like he knew them. They were like him, people with dreams and ambitions, who had their entire lives ahead of them. Their families would never get to see them again, and he exhaled, trying to get a grip on the emotions that were threatening to overrun him. He couldn't cry yet. He needed to know more.

In the corner were the duelists who had traveled with him to America.. Yugi was there, smiling, flashing a thumbs-up to the camera. Anzu was laughing. Honda was scowling at an invisible threat while Ryou looked lost and confused. They all looked so happy.

None of them would ever be doing that again.

"Those were twenty-five of us there that day." He set the magazine on his lap at the sound of a female voice.

He was surprised to discover it was Mai at his door and not his sister. Lime green jeans and an oversized black t-shirt clashed horribly with the bland décor of the room, and he pat the chair next to the bed, realizing after a minute that she wasn't going to move from the wall unless she was invited to.

She took a seat, moving the piles of books out of the chair, and he watched her play nervously with a chunk of her curly blonde hair. He had so many questions he wanted to ask but did not know where to begin and he didn't want to offend her. She smiled at him and he felt reassured that explaining was why she came.

He picked the thing that lay in the forefront of his mind. " Is Yugi alive?"

"You already know the answer."

That was right. He did know the answer. He just didn't want to accept it. But now, that he knew, he wasn't sure what he was supposed to feel. Should he be feeling relieved that he knew his best friend's fate? Should he cry because he really was gone? Why wasn't he angry over this? Why did he not feel angry? Shouldn't he be picturing horrific deaths on those who murdered the only person who had ever really cared about him?

All he felt was the questions that swirled around his mind and the numbness that was eating him alive. His body and mind felt like two separate entities, not connected so he would be protected from the weight of everything he once knew in his life crashing down upon him.

He knew he was staring through her, having nothing to respond with. She was fidgeting, uncomfortable with being scrutinized so closely, and finally she snapped her finger, pulling him out of his thoughts.

"It's okay to cry if you need to. I wouldn't think any less of you." She mumbled.

"I don't want to," was his answer and she changed her approach.

"Does it feel like it happened to someone else?"

Jonouchi glared at her. " I don't remember what happened so yeah. To me, it feels like a freakin fairy tale."

She winced at the harsh tone. " Fairy tales usually have happy endings."

"Does this one?"

"You're alive, are you not?"

"But he's not," he responded, the words slipping out of his mouth before he had time to screen

them.

The smile he got in return was sad, and he felt guilty. He should be rejoicing that he was alive, not acting depressed as if he was the one who had died. " I know I should be happy that I am alive, " he quickly added, trying to explain what he meant. " But I don't feel fully alive. There are pieces of my life that are missing within me."

"You didn't need to clarify. Your feelings are valid." She smiled at him. " Everyone else feels the same."

"Do you?"

"No. I didn't lose anything that I couldn't replace."

Again, the words were frigid and uncaring. He knew on some level, it should be bothering him. All their friends were dead and she wasn't fazed. But he didn't have the right to judge a person he had only met through pictures and through their current exchange of words. It had to be a façade. No one in the world could have that little feeling residing in his or her heart.

"I want to know what happened that day." He announced, breaking the interlude of silence.

She looked up to meet his expectant eyes " How much do you want to know?"

"Everything."

"Alright." Her eyelids flitted closed, and she sighed, beginning to process what happened so she could relay it clearly.

"We were doing an exhibition game at a high school, trying to spark some interest in the kids who lived outside Asia. Some kids showed up and began to shoot."

"Why…?" Jonouchi questioned.

"I don't know. The police said they had had plans to do it for some time. It isn't certain that they purposely coincided the attacks with our visit."

"Bastards."

"Yeah." She smiled almost wistfully.

"How many shooters were there?"

Mai raised an eyebrow, surprised by the question. "I think about twenty."

"And how many people were in the school?"

"Over a thousand…" she was uncertain about where the questioning was leading.

"Then why isn't there more people alive? Twenty people can't just kill that many people."

Mai exhaled slowly, she seemed to be doing a lot of that lately, and reached out to grab the magazine. She pointed to the front cover, pressing her nail against the section of the photo that was behind her.

"Bombs were placed around the school and when the gunmen realized that they weren't going to be getting out alive, they detonated them. Most people died, not because of being shot, but because they hid and locked the doors like they were told to if a shooting ever occurred. The fire spread and…" she trailed off.

"Who did survive that was in there?" Jonouchi asked. " Besides you and me."

"Kaiba,"

"Figures," he huffed. "How'd he…"

"His helicopter. He called for help after seeing Yugi go down. In his fit of rage, he took out the killers and anyone who dared to enter the room."

Jonouchi nodded, knocking Mai's hands away from the magazine so he could flip to the picture of Kaiba with Yugi.

"What happened here?" he asked.

"How should I know? It wasn't like I was in the room with them." She snapped, and immediately muttered an apology.

"You're the only one who can tell me how he died!"

"I am," she bowed her head in respect. " I am sorry for snapping. It's just hard sometimes to have to keep talking about it. The picture was taken right after Yugi died. Something broke in Kaiba, I think, and he started crying and screaming. His staff told me that he refused to move when they came to rescue him, and the only way they got him on the plane was by picking Yugi's body up."

"It's alright. I take it that you are the one who gets stuck telling everyone about it."

"Yeah. I have an interview I have to go to in a few minutes." She smiled.

"So how is Kaiba? Is he capitalizing on his mortality?"

"He hasn't left his mansion in Domino City. He's not speaking or working. Mokuba claims he lies around, staring at his hands. He only gets up to wash them."

He opened his mouth but she answered his unspoken question. " His hands are stained with Yugi's blood."

A buzzing noise went off and Mai hit a button on her watch. She stood up, straightening her t-shirt, and running her hand through her hand, ruffling it and checking it for snarls.

She walked to the door, stopping by the window to check her appearance. She must have been happy with what she saw because Jou saw her reflection smiling.

"Interview?"

She nodded, and turned to him. "Have a nice day, Jonouchi-san. If you have any thing you want to ask me or just need to talk, just ask for me,"

"Alright," he answered and she opened the door, slipping through it. He watched as the door slightly swayed as it began to close and he figured out what he had wanted to ask. "Wait!" he yelled.

He saw the window Mai stopping and he watched her open the door far enough that she could poke her head in. "What?"

"I survived because of you, right?" She nodded. "How'd you get out of there alive?"

"I don't die easily." Her smile was brilliant, words littered with confidence but somehow it didn't match her eyes. The violet shade was dead, and the door closed.

_Is somebody out there beyond these heavy aching feet?  
__Still the road keeps on telling me to go on  
__Something is pulling me  
__I feel the gravity of it all_


	2. Torn

**Ave Maria**

_I'm cold and I am shamed lying naked on the floor  
Illusion never changed into something real  
I'm wide awake and I can see the perfect sky is torn  
You're a little late, I'm already torn_

"…We will get through this. Our lives are not over with and your losses will never be forgotten. The pain you feel will lessen over time and someday you will feel alive again. Thank you." Applause broke out in the audience and light bulbs flashed as the cameras forever immortalized the moment. The blonde girl gave a small smile before she glided off the stage, and Mokuba turned off the TV.

"It's done. Can you now talk to me, Nisama?" he asked, turning to face his brother. Kaiba just kept staring at the black screen, still transfixed by it, and Mokuba sighed, sitting on the edge of the immaculate bed.

His brother had been that way for days, much like his post Death-T state when he lay in his coma. He had retreated to his mind back then as well. He remembered the other Yugi telling him that he reemerged because he had found forgiveness. However, the other Yugi was an optimist and only wanted to see the idealized Kaiba. Seto never forgave himself for anything. He wore his guilt and pain as armor and threw himself into his work to forget all about it, to atone for his sins. For this, Mokuba often felt that his brother should have stayed in his coma. It was only there that Kaiba found happiness. There, everything material and emotional was absent. It was a simulated death and Mokuba often held that Kaiba's greatest wish to die.

This was why he regretted trying to pull his brother out of his mental funk. He wanted to see his brother happy but he wanted to see him alive and moving about. He had started out with turning on the TV, hoping to draw his brother's lifeless stare to an object to test out if his brother was capable of responding to stimuli. It was like a scientific experiment and his hypothesis had turned out correct. Within a few hours, his brother began to watch an international news channel and since then, about four days ago, it had been on, repeating the same news stories every fifteen minutes.

He didn't know how his brother could take listening to the same stuff over and over again. Kaiba was the person who would ride in the car and change the channel every time a commercial or a repeat song came on. But Kaiba was not there anymore. He was now just a blank shell with a damaged soul.

He had finally taken to shutting off the TV after he discovered his brother's obsession with washing his hands. Since the shooting coverage was on so often, it began to make Kaiba feel guilty. So of course, he began to believe that blood was on his hands.

At first, Mokuba didn't believe this. His brother never moved when around him, but later he discovered, the minute he was gone, Kaiba's lifeless body would be revitalized and he dash to the bathroom to scrub his hands until they bled. Even now, his brother was trying to protect him and it annoyed Mokuba to no end. He wasn't a child anymore. He was running the company now that his brother was incapacitated. His brother would not even sleep around him because he might just slip up and show some of his inner turmoil. It was beginning to show. Dark circles ringed Kaiba's eyes and his skin had taken on a pale yellowish tint from malnutrition and lack of rest.

Mokuba knew that he probably should leave. It would be more beneficial for his brother's healing if his brother unconsciously could stop worrying about protecting him, but he wasn't Seto's little brother for nothing. He was stubborn, more so then Kaiba, and his brother needed to know he was loved by people other then the ones he paid.

"It's not your fault, I hope you know. You couldn't have done anything. You are not to blame for Yugi's death."

This was the usual mantra he whispered to his brother. He hoped that if he said it enough, Kaiba would believe him. There was no reaction to the words and Mokuba stood up, exhaling softly. He wasn't sure if he wanted to cry or scream in frustration at the lack of progress. But whatever one he chose, he could not do in front of his Nisama.

"If you need anything, just call. Okay?" Kaiba wasn't going to make a sound even if he was being burned alive, but Mokuba still felt the need to say it.

The door was shutting behind him when he heard three words, " She's very pretty." He almost thought he imagined it, which he very well could have. He was tired as well but if Kaiba had actually spoken willingly, it was a good sign. It gave him an idea and he went into his bedroom to find his cell phone

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His hand hurt. It hurt more then the bandages being unwound from his foot that he swore was ripping off skin because he kept bleeding and he hadn't bleed from there in days. He gave Shizuka a look and she loosened her death grip reluctantly. Now he could feel the pain, and he gritted his teeth. He could see the raw mangled skin now and the raised bumps around the unmarred portion of his ankle. It was disgusting but he couldn't look away. He had an odd desire to touch it.

"So what exactly is wrong with it?" he asked the nurse who returned with a clean roll of gauze.

She gave him a confused look.

"She doesn't speak Japanese, Oniichan."

Jonouchi suddenly remembered and he growled in disappointment. She smeared some cream on his leg and rebound his leg with a thin layer of gauze, enough for him to be able to feel the cool air on his skin. He never knew it could feel so good.

"I wonder why she left the chest one," Shizuka commented the minute she left the room.

"Who knows?" he mumbled, laying his head on the pillows.

"You're grumpy."

"No shit."

"You shouldn't be."

"I don't think you have any right to tell me how I should be feeling."

Jonouchi knew he was being mean to Shizuka and she didn't deserve being the brunt of his frustration. But she was always saying things like that, without ever seeing other people's perspectives. Everything she said was based on what she would do or what she thought like the world came in only terms she knew.

"I'm sick of living on the whims of the doctors and nurses. I'm tired of not knowing what's wrong with me and I'm tired of sitting in this bed. I'm tired of waiting for people to visit me to keep me company and I don't know how to work the TV," he explained.

"Well, Mother is coming tomorrow so you'll have someone who can tell you what the doctors are saying and read you the instructions."

The room went dead silent except for the beep of the heart monitor which was quickening in pace as the seconds passed. Jonouchi was flabbergasted and kept opening and closing his mouth looking for words to say.

"Why did you invite her?" The tone was cautious, anger ready to pounce if she answered the question wrong.

"She can speak English."

"That's not what I asked, Shizuka."

"God, she just wanted to see you." Shizuka brushed her auburn locks out of her eyes, and for the first time noticed how tight Jonouchi's jaw was set. He was angry and he was barely containing it.

"See me? That has to be a joke. Why the fuck would she want to see me?" he hissed.

"You are her son."

His voice was so quiet compared to the noise of his fist hitting the nightstand, inches away from where her own lay. " If I am her son then why'd she leave me?"

"She didn't have …"

"She did, Shizuka!" he yelled. " She always had a fuckin' choice and she choose to abandon me with him."

"So what are you going to do, Katsuya? Have her travel half way across the world and then deny her the privilege to see you?" Shizuka screamed back.

" Call her off then. I don't want to see her."

"How can you do that to your mother?"

"It's easy, " he replied. " She's not my mother. Mothers don't leave their kids to die!"

"She didn't leave you to…"

Jonouchi interrupted again. " She didn't leave you. She left me. That's the difference."

"I can't believe you! Stop being so…"

"What? Selfish? Leave…I can't deal with you anymore."

"No."

Jonouchi let out a bitter laugh. " I want you to leave my room. You are annoying me. Don't come back until you realize that you had no right in trying to get us to reconcile."

"Fine." Shizuka stood up. " She does care about you."

"She doesn't." Jonouchi turned over, being careful not to lie on his ribs or move his foot, and hid his face with the blankets until he heard the door slam. It was only then that he removed the blanket because he didn't want her to see him crying.

'''' '''' '''' '''' '''' '''' '''' '''' '''' '''' '''' '''' '''' '''' ''''

She had been surprised when she reached the hospital that someone had called, looking for her. It wasn't like anyone liked her enough to call her or she had anybody in her life that she kept in contact with. A number was given to her, an international phone number to boot, and so she had slipped into the public bathroom with a cell phone she had found in the waiting room. It had been sitting there for the past three days. No one was coming for it and why would she return home and pay a huge fine for some person who randomly decided to call her.

"Moshi Moshi."

"Who are you and why did you call me?" She decided to go straight to the point. She didn't want to rack up the poor person's phone bill up too much.

"This is Mokuba, Kaiba's little brother."

"Ah. What do you want?"

"I need a favor."

"Name it."

"You know the problems my Nisama has. He's not speaking or doing much of anything. He saw your speech today or maybe it was yesterday for you. Don't know. Anyway, he spoke. So I was curious if…"

"If I could fly to Japan to visit a man I never met before to try to bring him out of his shell?" Mai interrupted.

"How'd you know?" Mokuba sounded really surprised and it made her want to laugh.

"Just a lucky guess. Anyhow, Mokuba…I would love to do it but I can't. For some of us, tragedies and almost being killed aren't applicable excuses for missing work."

"I can give you money! Just please help my brother!"

She really felt bad for the kid. The money was tempting but she had to think rationally. She wasn't some miracle worker. She wasn't supposed to be the one solving everyone's problems. She could not be the only person in the world that Mokuba believed could help his brother.

"Mokuba, I have an idea. Does Kaiba have any friends?"

"No."

" Smart man. How about people he can be found with such as other duelists?"

"Uh, there'll all dead."

"I know that, silly. What about Jonouchi?"

"They hate each other." She filed that away for future reference.

"Does he know Shizuka?"

"Sort of. Why?"

"Well…" Mai shifted so her hipbone wasn't pressed at such an awkward angle into the sink. " Seeing a friendly face might be helpful. Your brother is foremost a businessman and needs to put on a good impression. I presume that is how he deals mainly with his problems. If she shows up, he will be forced to act like his normal pompous self, which could help regain some of his sanity."

"That's a good idea. How do you know all that?"

"…Psychology…"

"Alright. Can you get her to be here by tomorrow?"

"She'll be there by our tomorrow. Have a good day or night or whatever the hell it is." She hit the end call button and leaned her head back against the mirror. Now all she had to do was think of a way to get Shizuka there.

'''''' '''' '''' '''' '''' '''' '''' '''' '''' '''' '''' '''' '''' '''' '''

Mai had shown up at her doorstep at three a.m. drenched. She had not commented on how many times she had hit the doorbell to wake the sleeping girl or why her clothes were stuck to her when there was no rain. She just told Shizuka she had to be on a plane in two hours and she wasn't allowed to argue.

Shizuka didn't normally make it a habit to listen to strangers in the middle of the night or get in the car with them. But she had gone on stranger adventures before on a less of a whim so she went along. She didn't think Mai would have accepted anything less then her getting on the plane.

Japan was much more cluttered then she remembered. Maybe it was just compared to America and the hospital Jonouchi was staying at. There were so many trees and mountains in the distance and the sun could always be seen. Japan seemed so much darker, dismal compared to the open lightness of the states.

She could see buildings she vaguely remembered seeing as a child passing by her window. Her mother would drive her past them every day to her daycare, which were a few blocks from Kaiba Corp where her mother worked. She had worked on the assembly line, checking the screws on the pieces of metal that would later be combined to make tanks. To think she would have to talk to the man who ran that company, who controlled roughly 30 of Japan's economy at the tender age of 17, was intimidating. She was frankly scared of him, having only seen him duel. He would get this intense look like nothing in the world matter except for him winning, and she had watched far too many times, the cruelty and cunningness he possessed that led him to victory.

" Miss Kawai," the driver was holding her door open, " We're here."

"Okay. Thanks." She was ashamed that she had zoned out so much that she didn't notice they had stopped. She scooted out of the limo and faced the mansion.

She remembered it. They had done a class trip there once and she was having the same reaction she had had when she saw it the first time: utter disbelief. The brown toned walls had faded but flowers were now blooming all over the grounds in every shape and color imaginable. She momentarily entertained the fantasy of living at Kaiba's house; having the life of a princess, and then walked up the steps where Mokuba was holding the door open for her.

She was expecting to be taken to a living room or a bedroom given Kaiba's condition. Instead she was brought into a board room, and Mokuba gave her a sympathetic smile before pushing her into the room and closing the door.

The aura of the room was one of deceit, she felt. All the light in the room was natural, coming from the huge bay windows that overlooked a cathedral and pond, but even the harshest sunlight could not make the room feel cheery. A long table was the only item of décor in the room with plush chairs lining it. At its head sat Kaiba, dressed in a suit, hands folded on the table, looking very business-like. 

"Hello, Shizuka," he said majestically.

She wasn't expecting that much suaveness or normalness from Kaiba, if Kaiba walked around his house in a perfectly-pressed suit and tie, carrying a briefcase everywhere with him.

"Hello, Kaiba-kun," she responded, taking a seat by the windowsill. She waited for him to talk but he just looked at her with that calm calculating stare. Thoughts ran through her mind of what she should say but nothing sounded right.

"Why do you have a conference room in your house?" She asked, not knowing what else to say.

"Gozaburo liked them. He used them to intimidate unwelcome guests into leaving quicker," his blue eyes were blazing, baring into hers and she gulped. She knew he was playing with her. It didn't make it any less scarier.

"Do you?"

"Not particularly."

"Then why did you keep it?" She had noticed when Mokuba had led her to the halls that this portion of the house was dusty and unheated as if it had never been used. The boardroom itself looked like it had little use. " You could knock down this section of the house and build something new."

He rose an eyebrow. " Gozaburo jumped out that window."

It was very manner-a-fact but Shizuka didn't get what he was implying. " Did he live?'

"No. He died."

"I'm sorry."

He broke out in laugher at her naivety. It was a low primal sound that made her stomach turn. " I don't know why Mokuba sent for you. You know absolutely nothing."

"Mokuba wanted you to see a friend."

"I don't need friends." Kaiba was no longer staring right at her. His eyes were lowered to watch the twiddling of his thumbs.

"Wasn't Yugi your friend?" The warning bells were going off in her head that this could anger him. At least then he would talking like his normal self, nasty and condescending.

"He was never my friend."

He said it a little too quickly and she knew she hit a nerve. " Then why are you mourning him?"

"Get out."

It was a new record. In the past 48 hours, she had been kicked out of two rooms. If this kept up, maybe she would start being happy about it.

"He was your friend. You just can't admit that. You can't even do it now."

"Leave."

"I challenge you to tell me he meant nothing to you," she continued.

Kaiba stood up, and stalked over to her. He towered over her and looked down, the light hitting him in a way that made him look like a God. " Don't tell what to do, little girl. Don't talk about things that you don't understand."

She should back down. She should walk out and not argue back. She was supposed to be helping him. She didn't care about any of those thoughts though.

"I do understand, Kaiba. You are such a sad human being. You can't even admit that anybody other then your precious brother could care about you or you care about anyone other than yourself," she hissed, kneeling up on the windowsill so they were equal height. "It's sad that his death was the only way you would ever realize how much he meant to you."

"What are you implying?"

"His death had a purpose." Shizuka was trying to meet his eyes but it was like trying to stand ground against the neighborhood bully who was slowly advancing towards you.

"Designated by who?"

She had no clue what he was saying so he elaborated. " A purpose is something given by someone in order to achieve something. Who was the one giving this so-called destiny?"

"God."

She didn't feel the push until her head hit the glass, and she leaned forward, rubbing her scalp to check for blood.

"So God miraculously decided that hey, I am going to hold a school shooting and going to kill an innocent boy in an attempt to make Kaiba see the value of life. Yeah, he really said that," Kaiba ranted, pacing down the length of the table and she backed up closer to the window. He was acting like a walking time bomb and she wasn't about to ask why he had pushed her. " And did God designate Yugi with the purpose of being the sacrificial lamb to be slaughtered to forgive our sins? No. Yugi was just in the wrong place at the wrong time and he is dead because of it! How dare you say it was meant to happen. It wasn't! It was a fuckin' mistake. Just a fuckin' mistake…."

She slipped out of the room as he continued his diatribe. It was likely that she would get hurt if she stayed any longer.

''' ''' ''' ''' ''' ''' ''' ''' ''' ''' ''' ''' ''' ''' ''' ''' ''' ''' ''' ''

His mother had a loud voice and so it carried down the hall, announcing her arrival. His stomach dropped and he began to sweat. He hadn't seen her in three years or realistically, in eight years since the time she drove off taking Shizuka with her. Three years ago had been Shizuka's eye surgery and he had saw his mother in Shizuka's room right after the surgery. He had not gone in, needless to say. When he had tried, she had given him this look of disapproval which made him so angry because it was him who paid for the surgery, not her. Not her with her high paying corporate job and mansion. But he didn't argue and had just left the room. He didn't come to visit her for another week, right after his mother left the country.

The door swung open and he saw his mother for what seemed to be the first time. She was a very proper looking woman with grayish hair set in a bun and raptor eyes. She tried to smile at him but the lines along her mouth told him that it was forced. It was closer to a grimace then anything happy.

"How are you doing?" she asked.

"Pretty good. Do you know what is wrong with me?" If he was going to be tortured, he thought he should at least get some of the information that he had been craving to know.

" They said that you bruised some of the tissue that is in your foot which will make it hard for you to walk."

Jonouchi was relieved. He didn't want to be walking around with crutches or a cast. Too bad her account of the injuries was so vague and his chest wasn't mentioned. It probably just was bleeding, he assumed, and that was why she didn't mention it.

"So how's work?"

"You know how it is. The workers was rioting, supposedly I'm not paying them enough, and…"

She proceeded in telling him about her job and how much she wanted to fire one of her workers. It was so very a normal conversation, that is for adults. But he wasn't an adult. Nor was it a conversation that should take place between a mother and a son. But they weren't that either. It was a conversation that avoided the entire issue of her being there, and the hard feeling that lay between them. It was like she was forcing herself to talk to fill the silence so the questions never had to be asked and the big answer did not have to be given.

"Ayu…why did you leave me with Dad that day?" he asked suddenly, interrupting her story of the letter carrier thinking he had Anthrax.

She just jabbed on like he hadn't talked.

"Answer my question!"

"Katsuya, does it really matter?" she whined. She was nearly fluttering her eyelashes and he felt more like one of her clients that she was trying to pursue into a business deal with any relative of her.

"I wouldn't ask it if it wasn't important to me."

"But it's in the past…can't we just move on from that?"

No, they couldn't. The few times they had seen each prior to the split, he had asked that and she refused to answer him. She refused to answer why he couldn't live with her. She refused to help him when his father started hitting him. And when it got too much for her, she stopped allowing him to see her. There would always be that wall between them because of that day. He wanted it torn down and he saw a chance to do it now.

"We can't. I can't. I need to know why you did it."

"I don't know what you are talking about."

Second tacit of business: Deny you know anything. It seriously pissed him off. " Why did you drive away with Shizuka that day and not with me?"

"I had to get her away from your father and you weren't there."

Third tacit: Selective memory on your shortcomings. " I chased the car for six blocks and when I finally caught up, you hit the gas and sped away."

"I'm sorry if I did that."

Her apology didn't seem too sincere but he accepted it. " If you did that? You did it, Ayu."

"What do you want from me? I can't change the past."

"No, you can't. You can change the future. You came here for a reason and that was to reconcile with me and attempt at a relationship. The only way that can ever happen is if you tell me why. And then, I'll forgive you."

He searched his mother's face for some sort of emotion. He couldn't find any. That surprised him. She should be sobbing now because of his overly heart-felt emotional speech.

"Did you come from a different reason then that?" he whispered.

She sighed. "Shizuka said you needed an English translator. I have to be in New York City tomorrow so I had some time to stop by."

"So you don't care about me?"

"God, Katsuya. It's not like that!"

"You didn't care about me then either. I thought maybe you would change and maybe learn that I will actually die one of these times," He whispered.

"I love you! How can you say that?"

"I don't know. But you do…"

"I don't have time to deal with an insolent child. Bye. Have a nice recovery." She walked as quickly out of the room as she did into it and he sighed. He was sorry he even tried being nice to her. No matter what, Shizuka was her choice because she was exactly what his mother wanted: quiet, obedient, respectable, and kind. He could never be that.

''''''' ''''''' ''''''' ''''''' ''''''' ''''''' ''''''' ''''''' '''''''

"You're still pouting."

He glared at her as he snatched the McDonald's bag out of her hand. Opening it, he could smell the grease off of the fries and he smiled at her as he reached in to grab a few and stuff them in his mouth.

"Thanks," he told her after he swallowed, and she sat down in the chair, taking a sip of her soda. " I needed some comfort food."

She didn't think that fattening fast food was what people intended comfort food as being but she wasn't going to argue. "No problem." McDonald's was only a block away from her work place and she had promised him that he could call if he had wanted anything. "So what's bothering you?"

Jonouchi looked up from his triple cheeseburger. " Nothing."

"Liar," but she didn't press him for answers. He looked almost in ecstasy as he ate the sandwich and she didn't want to wreck his mood. It wasn't like she had any right to know what he was thinking about.

"Have you ever had a parent who betrayed you and then pretends it never happened? Then claims she loves you but is treating you more like a client of hers then a son?" he spit out, words coming in a rush of jointed syllables.

"No. I don't have parents."

He looked at her strangely. " I'm sorry. But you least should have known them…"

"Not really. They were always on business trips when I was little and when they returned home, they would give me presents. One time, they didn't come home. Everyone just assumed they died and moved on."

"Oh."

She laughed at his shocked look. " It's alright. I know what you're saying. Parents are mysterious creatures. They ask nothing in return for loving you except for devotion. And when you aren't what they want you to be or better yet, you become exactly what you are expected to be, they hate you for it because you displayed willingness to obey. They make mistakes but say they aren't because they love you and everything must suddenly be okay and you aren't allowed to hold grudges. …Am I getting anywhere close to your thoughts?"

"Almost what I thought word for word…except not as eloquently." He smiled and picked her soda off the table, taking a swig through the straw. She rolled her eyes and allowed him to finish it.

"Oh, I…" her cell phone rang and she sighed, flipping it open. "Hello."

She listened to it for a few seconds and handed it to Jonouchi. " It's your sister. She wants to talk to you."

Jonouchi nodded and watched Mai slip out of the room to give them some privacy.

"Hey."

"Hey. I heard some news from Mokuba."

"Oh yeah, you saw Kaiba today. How was the rich bastard?"

"Uh…He was Kaiba." She didn't know what else to say or how to describe the confrontation. She was still on edge over it and freaked out that she lost her temper so easily. " They are going to have Yugi's funeral in a few days. You need to come."

In that split second, Jonouchi remembered that Yugi was dead. It hadn't crossed his mind since he first saw that photo. It was hitting home for him and he felt like crying.

"Yugi's grandfather is wiring the money to get you a ticket home. If you don't mind, can you bring Mai with you? I know she can be a bother sometimes but I want to make sure you don't get hurt while you are still healing."

Jonouchi just nodded, not being able to find the words. He assumed Shizuka would accept the silence as an yes.

"Alright. I'm going. I love you, Oniichan." He heard the phone click off and he closed the cover, throwing it into the chair. It might have broken it but he didn't care. He felt ill and his eyes were burning from trying to hold back tears. He just wanted to sleep and he rolled over, curling himself the best he could in a ball. It hurt his chest but the pain felt oddly good in a way, and he cried silently.

He didn't notice Mai slipping back in the room to retrieve her cell phone and her sitting next to him, lightly stroking his hair as he fell into a depression-induced sleep.

****

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**Author's Notes: **Another chapter is done! Now to explain a little bit about why I did certain things.

_Time Line:_

All the events in the manga happened such as Death-T, Battle City, Duelist Kingdom, but Mai never became friends with them. She was just another duelist for them to take down. Therefore, she was not in the finals with any of them (though I regret doing it. I still think she deserved to win against Malik) and Doom did not take place with her as one of the people opposing the Scooby gang.

_Mokuba and Kaiba_

I don't see Kaiba as the type of person who talks about his fears or why he does things. This leaves Mokuba to decide for himself why something happened and how his brother is affected by it. As for the way Kaiba treats Mokuba, it's all about him. Kaiba would kill himself if it would save Mokuba and protects him at all costs. That is why the different narrations of Kaiba's condition don't match up. Kaiba is not going to show weakness to his brother because he has to be the strong one.

As for Kaiba meeting with Shizuka, I wanted to show the lengths Kaiba goes to pretend that everything is normal. Again, he doesn't allow himself to appear weak. He puts himself in a role and clings to it because that is how he survives. He places himself in a role of superiority, of all-knowingness, makes himself a God because that is how people perceive him as. In any version of the show, it is obvious that people worship him. Yeah, they may be annoyed with him but they don't slip out of formalities. Anytime Kaiba shows up, the dynamics change. Everyone is put on guard much like a king visiting their subjects.

His behavior in the boardroom is to directly contrast his state in bed when Mokuba visits him while he is watching Mai's speech on the TV. I was going for the Post 9/ll mindset. My classmates would just stare at the TV for days on end, watching the towers collapse. It was just so weird to watch because I was just like, " Alright. We've seen this. Let's move on." And every time it would come on, they would cry. It was like an obsession for them that I was unable to understand.

_Jonouchi/Kaiba/Mai:_

These are probably the strongest normal characters in the Yugioh universe. I chose these three as the main characters, not because I adore all of them and they are fun to write, but I see them as archetypes to how we deal with tragedy. Jonouchi is able to forget about it because he doesn't remember and he is so far removed from it being half a world away from his home but the minute it occurs to him that it actually happened, he breaks down and cries. Kaiba just loses his sanity but in typical fashion, he shall come out and try to avenge the loss, fueling his anger into something great. Kaiba is the type of person who mourns and sits in the dumps for a while before moving on with their lives with a manic fever. Mai is the person who doesn't get the chance to mourn or be sad. She moves forward, dragging around the pain and guilt, counseling and helping everyone out without ever looking at herself and allowing herself to heal.

I don't know which relationship I will do for this story. I have never done a triangle which I think is the best option because I like all of the couple ideas. I have written all of them and I find the dynamics between them fascinating.

Kaiba and Mai together, though I haven't read any fanfiction with them together, is interesting because in a lot of ways, Mai is the female version of Kaiba. Both are narcissists outwardly, but inside was insecure. They both don't have parental figures to guide them and for the most part, are self-sufficient. Both have had to do things they weren't proud of to survive and both have had the chance to finally, after years of guilt, come to terms with it and grow as a person. Both are frightened by intimacy and that could play out nicely if I decide I want to use this couple

_Shizuka: _

_I_ hate her so much. But there was no way I could kill her in the context of the story so I planned her into it. I am sort of glad I did. I think I would like her as a character if not for the fact that she is always being compared to the stronger female characters, i.e. Mai and Isis. She is so weak acting and silent, which I think is what her name means if I remember correctly, and it's annoying.

That said, as I have written her, I have tried to give her some personality. She is a nice person. She is like the perfect lady, the ones you would see in the Victorian Age when women were all submissive to their husbands and were housewives. But I see her flaws as not being her perfection, but her idea of it. She tends to talk and says things, assuming other people think and feel the same. Then when she finds out they don't, she either apologizes or keeps arguing because she believes her way must be right. Jonouchi says this somewhere in this chapter. I notice that I am that way sometimes. I am a perfectionist and so I always think my writing is the best in the class. Then I see someone else's writing and they did something completely different, and I was like, " Why didn't I think of that?"

_Jonouchi and Shizuka_

On the surface, they have the perfect relationship. I mean, Jonouchi would have never took up dueling or gotten good at it if not for his sister and the need to get her eyes fixed. But at the same time, I think Jonouchi would have animosity for her. She got the life he wanted. He does all these nice things for her, and still doesn't get the life he dreams about. He loves her, obviously, but I think there is a lot of unresolved tension between the two over the past.

_On Parents:_

It has occurred to me that no character in this series has normal doting parents or parents at all, or at least the ones that I haven't killed off. Therefore, I will be screwing around with it a bit because I see often that crisis is the time that families either grow closer or they fall apart. In my case, mine grew closer together but ultimately shattered because they messed up in the handling of it.

Hope you enjoyed it and review!


	3. Wish you were here

**Ave Maria**

_And did they get you to trade  
your heroes for ghosts? _

_And did you exchange  
a walk on part in the war  
for a lead role in a cage?_

A funeral for a friend, how was he supposed to react to that? Should he cry there and if he did, would people think less of him? How would finally seeing his best friend's lifeless body affect him? Would he just put his life on hold like Kaiba or would he be able to keep going like Mai? For the first time, he was going to be facing the nightmare that they had all survived.

He sighed as Mai walked through the door, carrying stuffed bags from various department stores. He hated clothes and therefore shopping by association. It made him wary that she was picking out what he would wear since he didn't have any clothes. She was going to mess up his unique style.

"What'd you buy me?"

She shifted through the bags. " T-shirt, jeans, sneakers…and a suit."

"I am not wearing a suit."

Her eyes narrowed. " You are not going to Yugi's funeral looking like a hoodlum."

"Then I guess you would have to change clothes as well," he responded. She was wearing a short black short that exposed her stomach with a equally short red jacket over it, with stone-washed jeans with chains dangling across the back of them.

"Of course I will. Why would you think I wouldn't?" she snapped. "Sit up. Untie your nightgown and put on the shirt." She flung the shirt at him and he barely caught it before it slapped his face. He looked it over, finding it acceptable. It was a yellow t-shirt with a tractor on it.

"Do you have PMS or something? You're being a bitch." He asked.

He received a death glare. " I do not have PMS and I find it rather rude that you would mention that to a lady."

He rolled his eyes. She wasn't a lady. He reached behind his neck to undo the strings. He found a complicated knot and he looked at her, requesting her help.

She sighed and started to undo the knot. Her fingers were ice-cold against his neck and it made him want to jump every time they brushed his skin.

"I'm not bitchy. It's just we have two hours before we have to meet our plane. Shopping took longer then I expected because traffic was horrible and I couldn't find what I was looking for. I am sorry for taking it out on you but you are an easy target, " she pulled the string and he felt the top part of the robe slip off. " Put your shirt on."

He slipped it on and he was surprised to find it fit perfectly. It wasn't too tight or big.

"I need you to stand up for the pants." She told him and he flung his feet over the side of the bed and stood up.

Everything began to swirl around him and his foot hurt under the excursion of having his weight on it.

Colorful fuzzies blanketed his eyesight and she caught him as he tumbled forward.

"Idiot. You haven't stood up in weeks. You have to do it slowly," she chided and dragged him towards the wall. " Put your hand on the wall to stabilize yourself."

He did what she asked and eventually the dizziness subsided enough that he didn't feel like he was going to hurl. It was then that he realized that Mai's eyes were adverted from him, and when he looked at himself to figure it out, he saw that his nightgown was still tied, but it was pooling at his ankles and he didn't have boxers on.

He blushed- felt rather awkward and exposed - and he heard her chuckle as she rummaged through the bags of clothes. "Don't worry about it, Jonouchi. It isn't anything I haven't seen before." She pulled out the boxers and handed them to him.

He glared at her and slipped them over his feet. He took his hand off the wall to pull them up and again he felt the whoosh in his mind, and he felt Mai catch him by the shoulders.

"Alright. Either you let me dress you or you let me support you. We can't have you passing out before we get on the plane."

He chose the less humiliating approach and leaned against the girl as he pulled up his boxers and then the pants. When he turned around, red-faced and angry at the fact that this act had embarrassed him so much, he found Mai looking perfectly calm, like she did this every day. He couldn't believe she was handing it so maturely.

"Ready to go?"

He nodded. She grabbed her purse and swung it over her shoulder before grabbing his hand. Her fingers were so small compared to his and he looked up at her confused.

"I take it you don't want to walk around on crutches," was her response.

He wasn't sure if he was more offended that she was helping him or that it wasn't done out of romantic intent.

'''''''''''' '''''''''''' '''''''''''' ''''''''''''

He wasn't blind. He saw the way people looked and responded to the blonde as she pushed him around the airport in a borrowed wheelchair. Men would stop and stare at her, women would sneer, and everyone else looked upon her with respect and near worship. It didn't help that the Time magazine she was on was on every newsstand since it had just hit Japan a few days ago.

Then their eyes were drift to him. They saw the boy that she saved and gave her looks of pity because she was now responsible for him. It wasn't the sort of look he wanted. People should be envious of him for being with such a beautiful girl.

Mai ignored the stares she got and located their rental car in the parking lot. She dropped her suitcases in the back seat and motioned for him to stand up and get in the car. He was scared that he was going to fall again like he had done on the exit runway, which had resulted in them getting the wheelchair, but it went smoothly, his foot not giving out this time. She abandoned the wheelchair in a parking spot and got in the car, fishing out the key, and starting the engine.

She wasn't a bad driver. She just liked to go at obsessive speeds in the convertible so her hair would tangle and wrap around her face. It made him nervous because of all the cars that were on the road but she didn't seem to care. Several close calls later with a police officer, and she pulled into a small parking lot.

"We. Are. Not. Staying. Here."

Jonouchi sounded so defiant and she laughed, getting out of the car. " It's just Kaiba's mansion."

"No," he refused as she walked around to the other side to open his door.

"Jonouchi. I don't have money to spare and we need a place to stay. Mokuba offered. Stop whining and be a freakin' man, " she hissed.

" I don't like him, " was his comment as he stepped out of the car.

"I really don't care," she responded as she swung the duffel bag over her shoulder. "Come."

He dragged his feet as they made their way to the front door. Mai was in front of him, the thin heels tapping against the pavement as she glided up the stairs. She seemed to be in her element, he realized, and he reluctantly sped up to get into the sliding door, wincing every time his foot hit the ground.

They were in the center of the house with two carpeted staircases on either side, adorned with gold railings. A chandelier hung in the center of the ceiling, candles surrounding the rims with real flames that waved with the circulation of the air. The floor was so polished that he could see his reflection at his feet. He looked pretty scraggly.

Someone cleared their throat and he looked up. Kaiba was walking down the stairs, eyes locked on his, dressed in a fitted sweater and black dress pants. Jonouchi immediately felt the stirrings of hatred. The only thing the moment required was a red carpet and trumpets blaring out the announcement of a king approaching.

"Mutt," he acknowledged when he reached the end of the stairs. Jonouchi glared and Kaiba turned his attention to Mai who was standing next to him.

"Hello Kaiba-san. It is nice to finally meet you" she said, putting out her hand. Jonouchi looked at her strangely, not understanding the gesture, but as always Kaiba did, which again made him angry, and shook it then brought her hand to his mouth to kiss it.

"The pleasure is all mine."

"Close your mouth before the flies get in," Mai told him and he did just that. He found it shocking that

Kaiba could be kind. She turned to Kaiba. " Where are our rooms? I want to set my bag down."

"3rd floor, second room to the left."

"Alright. Thanks, " she gave him a gracious smile and walked up the stairs. Kaiba watched her until she was out of sight and then turned to Jonouchi who was unable to hide his anger.

"Watch it, mutt. You are almost foaming at the mouth," his voice had turned back from the gentleman and was now the hard emotionless voice that Jou knew only so well.

"Why did you do that to her?" he asked.

"Unbeknownst to you, some of us know how to actually be a gentlemen," he replied.

"I'm a gentleman!"

Kaiba rolled his eyes at the pure loudness of the voice. In the ancient mansion, it echoed, increasing the volume to unbearable levels especially for his migraine-induced mindset. "You're a dog. You don't have manners. You depend on your master for everything from food to walking to affection."

"And you're what? A man?"

Kaiba had an extreme desire to ruffle Jonouchi's wild hair. He would have done it too just to piss him off but he needed to restrain himself. "Of course I am. Now if you excuse me, I need to tell my chefs to set two more plates."

"Wait a second, Kaiba!" Jonouchi barked as Kaiba walked away. " I thought you were all psycho and comatose. What happened?"

Kaiba just kept walking, not bothering to turn around. ' Does it disappoint you that much that I am fine and you are not."

Jonouchi shot daggers at the back of the retreating figure.

'''''''''''' '''''''''''' '''''''''''' ''''''''''''

"You're faking."

He spun his chair around away with the computer where he had been doing data spreads. Mai was standing at the door to his office, dressed in very short plaid boxers and a black tank top. He looked at the clock for the first time in hours and realized it was past midnight.

"And what am I faking, Ms. Mai?" he chose to speak in English.

Her face lit up as she answered back. " Your health. You are acting just like you should be."

"Is it any of your business?" he switched back to Japanese.

She smiled. " No. It's not. Jonouchi spent the entire night ranting about how you are a horrible person. I just wanted to inform you that your little ploy has worked wonderfully."

He had to smile back. He had read her wrong earlier. She wasn't anything like Shizuka with her bothersome questions and self-righteous attitude. This girl was much more calm despite the seductive image she was making as she leaned against the doorframe.

"What are you doing up? I can get you some pills to make you sleep." He asked.

"Jet lag isn't the problem. I don't sleep much. And I got bored and decided to bother you." She kicked lightly the door closed and sat down on his couch.

"Maybe I didn't want to be bothered," he suggested.

"Maybe not. But those data sheets are your brother's work. And Kaibas don't make mistakes. You just want to look busy in case Jonouchi gets up and tries to annoy you again."

She was sharper then he gave her credit for. She wasn't just a pretty face. That made him a little bit happier. " Is that an assumption?"

"No. Fact. Neither of you can afford to make mistakes."

She blew off a potential argument with no problem. He was enjoying this little test of his.

"Is English your native language?" he asked, remembering her speech on the news. It wasn't only fluent but she didn't have the accent that many Japanese had when speaking it.

"Yeah. I was born in Chicago."

He had been there once for business. All the men he was doing business with went out to a seedy bar to drink and he had felt left out since he was underage and he wasn't going to get drunk and possibly wreck his chances of getting the deal. It had been strippers there. The men enjoyed them. He didn't. He found them somewhat offensive and lewd.

"Have you ever been to Beth's?"

"Yeah. I worked there for a year or so."

Another interesting tidbit of information on the girl to store away. He was curious to know if she was a stripper or a bartender there.

"Why did Shizuka come over here instead of you when my brother called you?" That had been bothering him for several days and not in a good way. He was still pissed off at himself for losing his temper around her.

"Truthfully, I did have to work but I didn't want to see her anymore. She was annoying."

"So, you sent her to me?"

"Yep." She smiled again at him. She had a very pretty smile though it made him sort of sad to see it. He thought back and he realized that in the several hours that she and the mutt had been living there, she had not smiled at Jonouchi once. That was another mood brightener.

"Oh well. Mokuba thinks she brought me out of my depression state, so I guess it's okay that you sent her."

"I don't think he believes that. He isn't as naïve as he pretends to be."

She has said exactly what he felt. He couldn't remember a time when anybody identified that characteristic of Mokuba. They just saw him as hero-worshipping his evil older brother.

"I know. Let me pretend."

She nodded and stood up, pulling down her shorts that had ridden up around her thighs. " Night." She said, and waved her goodbye, walking out of the room.

Kaiba smirked and went back to checking Mokuba's work.

'' ''''''''' ''''''''' ''''''''' ''''''''' '''''''''

She was annoyed. The only girl in the whole household who actually had to prim themselves to go to the funeral was the only one done on time. Sure, she had had to get up an hour earlier to shower, do her hair, and apply make-up but she was ready.

The dress was casual, or so Shizuka told her, so she settled on a pair of gold Capri and a pale flowing pink top. She assumed the guys would just wear black pants and a button-down shirt. It shouldn't take them an hour to put that on which was when she had woke Jonouchi up.

She sighed and stood up, stomping up the stairs in her heels to find both Kaiba and Jonouchi. She went first in the direction Kaiba had his office since she had no clue where he slept. Sure enough, he was in there because she could hear talking. When she opened the door, ready to chew him out for being late, she stopped.

Kaiba was sitting in his chair, painstakingly threading Mokuba's tie through the loop. Both were fully dressed in business attire and she smiled, closing the door.

She marched up to the next floor where she knew Jonouchi was staying, and found him in his room, sitting on his bed. He was playing with his tie, completely lost in his own world.

"Do you not know how to put it on?" she asked.

He nodded and she walked over to him and grabbed the tie.

"If you had problems with it, you should have found me or Kaiba to help you. We're now going to be late," she mumbled as she tightened it, putting it under the folds of the collar.

"Kaiba knows how to?"

"He has had to be able to do his own ties since he was a child," she answered.

"Damn." He slipped on his jacket and followed her out of the room.

Kaiba was waiting for them at the front door. As they walked to the limo, she compared the difference between Kaiba and Jonouchi who were arguing in front of her. Kaiba was all-pressed lines, every piece of the suit designed to compliment the others. Jonouchi's suit wasn't wrinkled but not exactly freshly ironed since it had sat in a suitcase for the past two days, and even though she had got matching pieces, they didn't seem to belong with another. She suspected he might have subbed some of his own clothes for the ones she picked.

'' ''''''''' '' ''''''''' '' ''''''''' '' ''''''''' ''

Jonouchi didn't realize that Yugi knew so many people. His funeral was packed and it was hard to weave through the crowd. He saw duelists he hadn't seen in years crying and the more shady ones were lurking in the corners using it as an opportunity to trade cards. The whole school had shown up including all the kids who used to bully him who were apologizing as they walked up to his open casket. All the girls who had turned their noses at him, thinking he was just another short nerd, were sobbing hysterically like they had actually cared about him.

Overall, it was an interesting sight to behold especially with the antisocial Kaiba having to make social graces. He did it with charm but his eyes kept shifting back and forth, looking for escape. Mai was trapped as well, making conversation with random people who kept coming up to her.

It would have been funny if this were just a party and not a funeral for his best friend. He felt sad that he had to keep reminding himself that. He kept forgetting that Yugi was dead and then suddenly it would click in his mind and it would become a reality.

That wasn't going to work for him. He felt like he was avoiding acknowledging the death, like if he didn't see the dead body, it never occurred. No one he knew was near him and so he made his way up to the alter where Yugi's coffin lay.

Pictures of Yugi lined the banisters of the stairs, candles placed between the photos to give it an almost heavenly glow. There was pictures with Yugi and him together, smiling after he had won his first tournament. There were victory shots of Yugi's wins in Battle City, the golden puzzle dangling around his neck. He was cradling it in his hands like it was something precious. It made Jonouchi wonder if Atem knew about his host's death. But then again, he didn't know if Atem really existed outside the hold of Yugi's body.

Anzu was standing next to him, hair flowing in the wind. The pointy ends of his hair just barely came to her shoulder and he looked more like her lap dog then he did her friend. His gaze spoke volumes of the love he held for her, and she would never get to find out that.

He turned away. He couldn't stand seeing all the memories he had had with his friends that served as reminders of things he would never have again. He had no one now. The only people who were left to support him were a narcissistic billionaire with severe psychological issues who despised him and a beautiful girl who saved his life for no reason without ever knowing his name. He didn't trust either of them enough yet to replace that hole in his life.

Yugi's coffin was made of gold. He found it sort of fitting for among it were the engravings of Egyptian hieroglyphs that had dominated their teenage years. He steeled himself for the coming moment and leaned over to see Yugi's body.

He didn't seem dead. But he didn't seem like he was sleeping either. He looked like a doll, dressed in a nice black suit, hair combed down, dyed back to its natural black color, open eyes that had had the lids pressed down because the person who played with it got sick of it staring at them. It made Jonouchi feel ill. The body he was looking at wasn't Yugi. It was just some sick demented version of it, made to cover up all the flaws in Yugi that everyone had loved about him.

"Who did this?" he asked Sugoroku who had come up behind him.

"His parents," Sugoroku answered distastefully.

"Bastards. Did the second he die, they came running home to see their son?"

Sugoroku nodded, and Jonouchi growled. Yugi's parents had handed Yugi to his grandfather when he was little and went off traveling the world, doing whatever they pleased. Neither visited or sent presents.

Jonouchi remembered Yugi telling him that he found out that he did have a mother and father after he had beat Kaiba the first time in a duel because his mother came home, not to congratulate him but to tell him that his card games wouldn't get him anywhere in life and so he needed to study. Yugi didn't listen and continued to duel which was what ultimately killed him. But he did die happy. He died not realizing that if he hadn't dueled, he still wouldn't have gotten his mother in his life.

He had anger that needed to explode and he searched the crowd for Yugi's parents. He had never seen them before but he had a suspicion that they were much like his own mother and dressed in the best clothes money could offer.

He spotted them in the back corner; being swarmed by old ladies who were offering apologizes to the grieving couple. Jonouchi stormed over to where they were, intent on making a scene.

"Hello," he greeted them, purposely leaving off any title to them. He wanted to appear like a rude kid. Yugi's mother turned her head to stare at him. Her look was one of looking at poop at the ground.

"Who would you be?"

She was being polite but cold, and it made him want to smile. He wasn't going to give her the pleasure of knowing his name. "Why did you dye Yugi's hair black?"

"It's his hair color." The husband had decided to butt in, wrapping his hand around his wife's waist.

"It's not. He has hair that is three colors: pink, blonde, and black. Why did you change it?"

"It was improper," she answered.

"Why did you dress him in a suit? He hates suits." Jonouchi knew his voice was getting louder. He didn't care. It didn't matter who heard him or if he caused a commotion. He was doing the job that Yugi never got to finish: confronting the parents.

"It is traditional to put the dead body in…."

"HE'S NOT A DEAD BODY. HE'S YOUR FUCKIN' SON!"

Eyes were turning to look at him and he gasped for enough breath to finish his tirade. " Yugi is Yugi and you have no right to change him for his funeral. How dare you even show up when the only thing you did for him was to bring him into this world and then abandon him?"

Both of Yugi's parents were blinking, shocked, not understanding that this was the moment they denied everything or screamed back. They just stared there looking like dead fish.

"Daddy. Daddy," Jonouchi heard a little kid's voice and he looked down to see a toddler tugging at Yugi's father's sleeve. " I have to go bathroom." It was Jonouchi's turn to stare at Yugi's father picked out the child and carried him to the bathroom. His wife shot Jonouchi a dirty look and followed behind him.

"Do you feel better now that you made a fool of yourself?" Kaiba hissed into his ear. He hadn't heard the taller boy sneak up on him.

"I do," he answered, spinning around to prepare for a fight

Kaiba smiled at him and for once it wasn't arrogant or conceited. It was one of evil satisfaction. " Good. They deserved it."

For once in his life, he agreed with Kaiba.

"Come. The funeral is starting," he told him and as Jonouchi followed him to their seats in the front row, he wondered why Kaiba was being so nice to him. He thought it could be the situation they were in. Kaiba may have not been Yugi's best friend but a connection lay between the two that he could never come between. In Kaiba, Yugi had had an equal. Even the billionaire couldn't deny that.

'''''''' '''''''' '''''''' '''''''' '''''''' ''''''''

Kaiba despised funerals. He thought they were worthless ceremonies which were spent by people who honestly didn't care about the person socializing and the ones who actually were grieving were useless masses of pity, breaking into tears every few seconds, making everyone uncomfortable.

Yugi's funeral applied to this except there were no tears. Most of the people who would be crying when he died were dead themselves and the ones that should be didn't care. That was why he decided to be nice to Jonouchi for a few minutes. He wanted to hurt them the minute he discovered who they were. Jonouchi had prevented him from making a spectacle out of himself and for the most part, said exactly what he had wanted to say.

They had taken seats in the second row, partly because he and Jonouchi were considered the best friends of Yugi. And in a way, he was Yugi's friend. After the first time they met, he stopped trying to kill him and instead aimed to be a nuisance in Yugi's life, always trying to best him and then helping him out when the boy ran into trouble. Despite all the horrible things he had done, Yugi had forgiven him and kept trying to be his friend. To his day, he didn't understand why. If he had been Yugi, he would have just written himself off as a jerk. But Yugi kept giving him opportunities and including him in his plans and always treated him kindly. He wasn't used to that.

He regretted not spending time with Yugi, getting to know the smaller boy. It was sad that it took Yugi dying before his eyes for him to realize that. He wanted to cry as people came up to talk about Yugi and what a wonderful person he was. He never got a chance to see that, always seeing him a rival or as a loser.

But Kaibas don't cry. It was the first law that Gozaburo taught him. Emotions would be used against you. Eliminate them from your life and you shall live.

Funny how the first thing that happened when Yugi was shot was he lost control of his emotions. He wanted to kill everyone in that room and wanted to bring Yugi back to life. He had screamed and cried, and pleaded to a God he knew didn't exist to save them. And as Yugi died, he remembered the last words he had said in a brief second of consciousness. " Fight on."

Their whole relationship had been based off of fighting and trying to be number one but now he could see what it was really about. He was fighting against Yugi not for a title but chasing after him to find the happiness he knew Yugi had. It was the happiness of people who understood him and accepted him for what he was, not for what he could give them. It was the support of people to catch him when he faltered and the unconditional love of a family.

He could have had that. If only he had taken Yugi up on the offer of friendship. Maybe he wouldn't be contemplating these thoughts as a priest who never met Yugi talked about him being a gift from God. Maybe he could stop looking at people as adversaries and more like friends.

Kaiba looked to either side of him. Jonouchi was watching the priest, transfixed but also angry. The mutt reminded him a lot of himself except he did not have the refined manners and social skills that he had had to learn to live the life Gozaburo required of him. That was why he enjoyed annoying the blonde. It was a way for him to feel in touch with his former self. To his other side, sat Mai, zoning out, picking at her peeling nail polish. He wasn't good with understanding women but she reminded him a lot of himself as well. She seemed to be the equal of what he was now, but unlike Jonouchi, she was an unknown quantity. When he thought about, neither he or Jonouchi knew anything about her other then she was a top-ranked duelists and had survived the shootings. Neither of them knew how she did it and he had only received sparse details of her life via their conversations.

He let his mind wander back to the funeral and the sound of applause. Another person had gone up to speak about Yugi and he tried to listen in. And when that failed, it would retreat back to his thoughts.

'''''''' '''''''' '''''''' '''''''' '''''''' ''''''''

She was bored beyond belief. The funeral was dragging on and on, and she was itching to get out of her seat and make a run for the bathroom. It wasn't like she knew Yugi well enough to feel she had to listen to the speech. He was just another kid that she saw at tournaments who always said hi to her. Boys were always saying hi to her, thinking that hey, if I were nice, maybe she'd talk to me. Mai never gave them that opportunity. She never responded to them. They weren't worth her time and energy.

She had gone to the funeral to keep the boys company and perhaps learn more about the kid who had impacted both of them so greatly. She was aware of the rivalry between Kaiba and Yugi, and the friendship between Jonouchi and Yugi. It was the talk of the competitions when either one were to fight Yugi. People who normally won't watch the duels would flock to the stadium or wherever they chose to have the duel.

She wasn't one of those people however. It didn't matter who won. It wasn't her…

People were getting out of their chairs and she followed, thanking some deity that she could go back to Kaiba's and crash. Jonouchi and Kaiba were behind her and she stopped as they neared the road where the limo was parked. Black vans were parked all along the streets, reporters swarming around the area. She backed up, trying to get away from them, but the surge of people formed a blockade and she watched in horror as one feisty male reporter spotted her and jogged, cameraman in tow.

"We are covering live the funeral of Mutou Yugi which appears to have just ended. Our special correspondent, Kujaku Mai, has volunteered to relay us with the events. Go ahead, Mai."

She stared blankly at the camera that was pushed into her face, wondering why the hell did this have to happen to her? Why was the man lying so blatantly and what was she going to say to save this from being a train wreck?

The reporter decided to save her, seeing his story slowly slipping down the drain. "How does Mr. Mutou's make you feel?"

"Well, of course, it makes me sad…" she stated, sticking to the obvious emotions. She truthfully didn't feel much of anything. The reporter was giving her a nasty look off the camera sight and she continued, making it up as she went. "Yugi was a wonderful man, always kind and trying to help others out. It is a tragedy that such a fine person had to die in such an horrific event and it…."

As Mai listed off of the admirable traits Yugi possessed, Jonouchi wandered off, seething. How dare she talk about him like she knew him? How dare she represent all his friends and family that had honestly cared about him and just didn't know him by association?

He found Sugoroku standing near the side, watching the interview with an unreadable expression on his face.

"They should be talking about Yugi to you not her," he mumbled, joining the man.

"It's alright."

"How dare that bitch talk to them acting like she's some hot-shot who has known Yugi all her life instead of a duelist who never had a chance to meet him because she was nowhere in his league," he fumed.

"She's talking to them because she's a hero," Sugoroku said calmly.

"Huh?"

"It wouldn't be a story if you or I talked about Yugi. It would not make the public's dismay of seeing someone so bright and talented dead. But to see her talk about it, it brings hope. She is their hero, she was created by them to be the symbol of the good that has come out of this. She isn't allowed to let them down and say she didn't know Yugi. She just has to keep pretending for everyone's sake."

Jonouchi watched the rest of the interview in silence, taking in what Sugoroku said.

**A.N: **I hate this chapter. I believe it sucks but I can't think of how to fix it and it's not like I have this huge fan following anyhow.It could that the relationships between Kaiba/Mai, Mai/Jonouchi are too sudden feeling but hey, I wrote it. I am too lazy to change it.


	4. Be Yourself

**Ave Maria**

Someone finds salvation  
In everyone  
Another only pain  
Someone tries to hide himself  
Down inside himself he prays  
Someone swears his true love  
Until the end of time  
Another runs away  
Separate or united  
Healthy or insane

_"…At least we get out of school for those fuckin' brats."_

_Yugi rolled his eyes. " You don't know if they are brats or not."_

"_Of course. But they're thirteen. If they were anything like me, they will be a nightmare." Jonouchi __laughed, munching on the salt peanuts the airliner had provided them with._

_"The game will teach them manners. It worked for you."_

_"God. You sound like Atem. You sure he wasn't just some sprit?"_

_Yugi smiled, leaning back into the chair. "I'm sure. His attitude wore off on me a bit, I think."_

His eyes fluttered open and he sat up in his bed, throwing the covers off him. He brought his hand to his face and felt the wetness of tears. Sighing, he stood up and walked to the bathroom, pulling a rag off the rack, and wetted it. He ran it along his face and body, wiping off the sweat, and he returned back to his bed.

Ever since Yugi's funeral, he had been having dreams about his friend. Most of them had been conversations without any real meaning but they still had the power to make him cry and miss his friend dearly. Even when they weren't dueling, which was often the basis of their friendship, Yugi had the ability to calm him and make him feel at peace with himself. He had not always been the best person but when he spent time with Yugi, he could forget about it. He was able to change into someone he was proud of.

Tonight was the first night that the dream was of something he didn't remember. Doubts filled his mind over if it had really happened but it was plausible enough for him to believe it was. He hoped that this was a sign that his memories were returning. A lot of questions needed to be answered that he didn't want to ask.

He turned over, and tried to fall back to sleep.

'''''''''' '''''''''' '''''''''' '''''''''' ''''''''''

The morning air was cool and Kaiba pulled the trench coat tighter around him to keep him warm as he padded through the dewy grass. Sun was just beginning to peek out from behind the trees and he reached his destination.

He kneeled down by the grave and set the bouquet of peonies against it. The fresh dirt dirtied his knees as he removed the dying flowers from around the grave and he stood up, throwing them into the plastic bag he had brought for that sole purpose.

"I didn't take you for someone who liked to wander graveyards."

He turned around to see Isis standing at the end of the row of graves, and he walked towards her.

"I didn't want anyone to see me talking to you," he explained.

The Egyptian sighed, taking a seat on one of the paws of the lion statue. Kaiba didn't have the heart to tell her that she was sitting on Gozaburo's grave marker partly because her doing that was like defiling its beauty.

"You haven't changed at all, Kaiba-san," she spoke, her voice soft but strong.

"And you have?" he responded, noticing her white flowing robes and heavy gold jewelry.

She didn't respond to his taunt. "Why did you ask me to come here?"

"Why do things happen? Is fate involved or is just chance that certain things occur?"

"I thought you didn't believe in fate. That you make your own destiny."

Kaiba smirked and took a seat next to her on the statue. "I still do."

"Then why…" it dawned her why he was asking. " You're looking for a reason to why Yugi had to die."

That wasn't completely true. Kaiba didn't need a reason as much as he needed validation that he was right. Shizuka's speech had gotten to him. He knew there could not be a God. Why would someone who was declared to be merciful kill someone so pure as Yugi?

But Kaiba wasn't a fool. No matter how often he denied the magical instances around him when he was with Yugi and pretended that Yugi's other half was nothing more than another personality of Yugi from some repressed childhood trauma, he knew deep down they weren't made up. What thing other than a higher power could be given the ability to defy all laws of nature?

"Just tell me if our destinies are predetermined or are they decided?"

"When you dueled me, you discovered that answer. There is an indefinite number of futures we can have. It is the decisions that we make that determine the future. Ultimately, we have a destiny we have to fulfill. It is the choices we make that decides if we do it or not."

Kaiba thought about that and tried to apply it into his life. What if he hadn't challenged Gozaburo? Would he be a happier person? Could Mokuba have had a normal life? But at the same time, he wouldn't have the billion dollar business or would have never met Yugi or become a duelist. But he wasn't sure what his destiny was. He couldn't believe that every decision led to the same final choice.

"What was Yugi's destiny?"

"To send the Pharaoh on to the afterlife. To grant him his peace."

Isis's answer was too quick, too certain, too wrong for Kaiba to accept.

"So once Yugi has done this, fulfilling his destiny, he is allowed to be killed!"

Isis didn't have an answer for that.

"Was that his fate?"

"He's dead. Therefore it was his fate."

Kaiba kicked the statue as hard as he could. He nicked a chunk of concrete out of the base near the plaque with Gozaburo's name on it. It was calming and he kicked it again.

"All paths led to the same place, Kaiba. It is everyone's fate that they shall die. It is us who decides when it is our time to die."

"So Yugi decided to get mowed down by an M16A1 and die," Kaiba spat out. He was beginning to remember why he avoided talking to the women in the past. She was just infuriating.

"That wasn't what I meant. He made a choice to go to America. He made decisions when the shooting began. Those choices led to his death."

"He never had a choice!" he growled.

"If we weren't talking about Yugi or his death, would you say the same? You are someone who is certain that they make their own destiny and that if you make a mistake; you are inviting others to kill you. Is it not the same?"

She stood up, smoothing out the wrinkles in her dress, pushing the strands of black hair out of her eyes. "Think about it, Kaiba-san."

He watched her walk to the top of the hill where she had parked her car, and he kicked the statue again.

"I am not good. That is the difference between him and me," he muttered to the open sky.

'''''''''' '''''''''' '''''''''' '''''''''' ''''''''''

"I didn't know you drank coffee," Shizuka commented as she entered the kitchen carrying a box of doughnuts.

"Neither did I," Jonouchi responded, opening the box to grab one of the glazed, and he dunked it in his drink. Shizuka wrinkled her nose in disgust and he laughed. " If you put enough milk and sugar in it, it doesn't taste bitter anymore."

"I'll keep that in mind next time I need caffeine." She grabbed one of the plain with pink frosting and sprinkles and bite into it delicately. "These are pretty good."

Jonouchi smiled at her, grabbing another doughnut and devouring it within seconds.

A few minutes later and Jonouchi had eaten ten of the doughnuts out of the dozen she had brought. He was leaning back in his chair, hands covering his stomach, looking slightly ill.

"Jou, do you eat anything other then the things I bring for you every morning?" Shizuka had to ask. No reasonable person would devour that many doughnuts in that short of a period of time.

He didn't answer her and she sighed.

"I know you can't cook but why don't you use the money I give you and treat yourself to some fast food?"

"I'm not hungry."

"Then why did you just eat ten doughnuts in ten minutes."

"Uh…. they tasted good." He gave her a sheepish look and she scowled.

"Why don't you want to go out and eat?"

A staring match began as Jonouchi refused to say what was really bothering him and she was not going to give in just because what she might say might offend him.

Finally Jonouchi relented and talked. "I used to go to all those places with Yugi and everybody. Now I have no one to go with, and it makes me feel lonely, sitting there by myself."

"I will go with you if you want me to!"

"No. I don't want you missing school for me, Shizuka. Thanks for offering though…"

"Anytime. I can bring you dinner tonight since I don't have flute lessons."

"Alright." He smiled and on a whim, reached over and ruffled her hair. She gave an indigent squeak before moving her head away from him.

"How's your counseling sessions going?"

Jonouchi groaned. Part of the deal with him leaving the hospital was that when he returned to Japan, he had to see a therapist. He thought it was the stupidest idea that he had ever been subjected to.

"Pretty bad. She asks me questions about the shooting and how'd it make me feel. And of course I don't remember any part of the trip until I am in the hospital so she then asks me about my life and events, and half of them I can't tell her because they are either illegal or involve Atem and other-worldly abilities and events. It's like I am constantly having to lie to her and I still have to go to five more sessions with her. I don't know how long I can keep my lies straight."

Shizuka chuckled and checked her watch. It was time for her to leave for school and she stood up, pushing in her chair. Jonouchi nodded a good-bye and she left, running as fast as she could so she wouldn't be late

'''''''''' '''''''''' '''''''''' '''''''''' ''''''''''

She'd decide to go somewhere and find herself there in twenty minutes with no memory of the journey. It felt like her body was connected to puppet strings and someone else was making her walk so she didn't have to think. This could have been bad, but she hadn't been killed yet so she didn't worry about not focusing on her walk home from work. She'd end up there fine, body intact.

Honking of cars, the blaze of neon lights lighting up street after street, and the stream of people entering the freeways of the sidewalk; they were all things that she passed by that she no longer noticed, lost in her thoughts. It wasn't that her thoughts were engrossing or fascinating. They were just thoughts that had nothing to them, like a blank chalkboard waiting to be filled up with something but she didn't hold the chalk to write the words.

Her apartment was on the second floor of some crumbling building and she walked up the stairs and down the dark hallway whose nightlight had blown out the previous year. She fished for her key in her pocket and entered the apartment, placing her keys on the hook by the door. Checking to make sure she had set all six locks on her door, she turned on the lamp that was her only light source beside the dingy window that overlooked the city.

It was one small room with an overstuffed mattress in one corner, piled high with various comforters and sheets, and a pile of all her belongings in another corner, placed on a towel to make sure the clothes didn't get dirty. A small cubicle was in the darker recesses of the room where she had her bathroom, an itsy shower stall, toilet, and sink filling it almost to capacity. It was in that back corner that she kept her safe, and she walked over to it, making sure to avoid the rusty nails that were poking out of the floorboards.

She spun the combination lock until she got it open, and then placed all the money she had earned for the day into it, closing it. She couldn't leave anything of value out in the open at the chance someone might be able to penetrate all the locks and security traps she had set. Her dueling deck was also kept in the safe because it was to her, more valuable then the money she had earned. It had sentimental value to her and also was a key source of her income. Dueling was a way for her to get and keep cheap money.

She closed the safe and stood up, sitting on the futon. She slipped off her heels and massaged her aching blistered feet, then took her hair out of its high ponytail. Stripping off her mini-skirt and corset, she put on a pair of boxers and climbed into bed exhausted. It was almost three a.m. and she had to get up at six to be to work at seven for her other job. Curling up in her heavy cocoon of blankets, she dozed off almost instantly.

''''''''' ''''''''' ''''''''' ''''''''' ''''''''' ''''

Night 6 post-funeral and Mokuba had had it. He could no longer deal with the incessant clicking of the keyboard all night long and the bickering in English when his brother wasn't getting his way.

This wasn't something abnormal for Mokuba to hear. His brother was a night owl in general but since moving into the room next door to Kaiba's bedroom, he finally got to see it for himself.

Maybe because he wanted to believe that his brother was healthy, he failed to notice the aroma of coffee that permeated throughout the hallway and the bathroom cabinet that was lined with caffeine pills, eye drops, energy drinks, and concealer to hide the bags under his eyes. But he could no longer ignore it and he got out of bed, opening the door that connected he and his brother's rooms.

Kaiba was sitting at his desk, cradling the phone with his shoulder as he typed into the computer whatever the person on the other line was telling him, occasionally grabbing his huge mug to gulp down black coffee. In all senses, he looked just like he did when he was at Kaiba Corp. except he didn't wear flannel pajamas to work on a daily basis.

Mokuba sat on the bed, waiting patiently, as Kaiba yelled gibberish into the phone and waited for his brother to calm down after he slammed the phone down. His brother was puffing, riled up and his eyes slipped closed as he downed the last sip of the coffee. He stood up with the mug and crossed the room to pour himself another cupful. Mokuba wasn't sure his brother noticed him as he sat back down by his computer so Mokuba decided to talk and make his presence known.

"When is the last time you've slept, Nisama?"

"Not sure," was his answer and Mokuba was happy that his brother didn't lie to him flat-out.

"You haven't slept in the past six days unless you are doing it while you are at Kaiba Corp."

"Have I? I haven't noticed." His tone was almost wistful and he sounded so lost, like he was battling his hardest to keep awake.

Mokuba stood up and pushed the chair so his brother spun to face him. " It's not healthy what you are doing to yourself."

It wasn't. His brother's skin was pallid, lacking any sort of color except for the bright blue of his eyes, which was obstructed by the red lines stretched along his eyes. The pajamas that had fit snugly a few weeks earlier were too big and dangling off him, so Kaiba had rolled the sleeves up, exposing his bony wrists. Mokuba was anticipating his brother to start shaking from caffeine withdrawal next if this pattern kept up.

"I know. But when have I have done anything good for myself?" Kaiba grinned. It pained Mokuba to see it. It was so twisted like he was enjoying indulging in his masochistic tendencies.

"Maybe you should start treating yourself better. You deserve it." Mokuba knew his comments were futile and his brother was thinking how innocent he was acting, not knowing the harsh realties of the real world, but his brother tended to brood things over. Eventually it would sink into his head if he said it enough times.

"You should," Mokuba added before his brother got around to rebuking the comment. He could see how slow Kaiba was thinking from lack of sleep, and he grabbed his brother's hands, pulling him onto the bed. Kaiba went along willingly and Mokuba slipped a pillow under his brother's head as he lay him down and then scooted to sit next to him.

"You need to sleep. You can't accomplish anything if you can't deny one of my lame acquisitions," Mokuba told him and Kaiba nodded, turning his head into the pillow. These were one of the moments that he was thankful that his brother had devoted his life to him. It gave him the ability to make his brother do whatever was needed. Even stubborn Kaiba knew he needed to sleep. He just needed permission to.

"What were you trying to do?" he asked, flopping down to lie on the other side of the bed.

"Get video capture of the shooting," Kaiba mumbled into the pillow. His eyes were glued shut and his breathing was evening out. He was near sleep.

"Why?"

"Cause'…" Kaiba never finished his sentence as he had fallen to sleep, but Mokuba didn't mind too much. It was something that could be answered a different day. It explained enough to why

Kaiba was talking so late on the phone: the time zones.

'''''''''' '''''''''' '''''''''' '''''''''' ''''''''''

"_Red-Eyes Black Dragon, attack!" he yelled and the hologram shot forward, blowing a fireball into the Silver Wolf's face, scorching its fur into black and it crumbled into ashes. Jonouchi heard the beeping of life points falling on the counter contained in the dueling disks and he cheered, hearing the last noise that signaled he had won._

_The kids he was demonstrating to cheered, and he smiled inwardly. He was doing a good job at spiking their interest in the game and he crossed the stage to shake hands with his opponent, a tiny Korean boy with thick-rimmed glasses dressed in a plaid tweed suit. The boy just glared at him, refusing to take his outstretched hand, and Jonouchi shrugged, walking back to his respective corner._

_"Any…" _

_A huge bang echoed throughout the hall outside the auditorium and everyone visibly jumped. Clacking of shoes marching down the hall began and Jonouchi looked around nervously. It reminded him of parades he had seen on TV in Communist Countries and he moved away from the door unconsciously._

_"Scared, Jonouchi?" _

_"Why would I be?" he responded and he heard a gun shot. He watched in horror as the bullet pierced the kid's skull, nearly making it out the other side. He could see it, the tip hidden under stretched out skin that refused to break._

_He was pretty sure it wasn't him who screamed first. That was all he knew. The room went into a state of panic and the hundred or so odd kids who were crowded in the auditorium moved, surging towards the door and windows. He remained frozen to the wall, too scared to remain where he was, but afraid of what could be waiting outside the door for them. Unlike the kids, he had been in fights before and had to think his way out of life or death situation. The bullet had come from the hallway. The person who shot it could still be waiting for him. _

_But unlike those fights, there were no guns or projectiles. It was fist vs. fist and once the enemy came into sight, the war began. It ended when one person got away. It was rare to die in those fights and Jonouchi remained against the wall, thinking it was his best option. It wasn't like he could get out the door if he tried. The kids had formed a mob rushing for it._

_The pitter-patter of a machine gun, and it was like a sick version of dominos as the kids who had thrown open the double doors were mowed down, their bodies falling on the kids behind them. And yet the children kept running up the aisles, meeting their deaths like a bunch of fools and Jonouchi knew he wasn't safe._

_He dove off the stage, trying to get out of the open area, and flung himself into the blue velvet curtains. He could hear the anguished screams of the people who had yet to die, and the maniacal laugher of the gunmen as they fired off more and more shots. The sound was getting closer and he crawled towards the back stage door. He had entered the room earlier through it and he knew it led to a hallway. If he got into the hallway, he could make a run for it and get as far as he could from the school._

_He tried to drown out what was going on around him, trying to ignore the death that was occurring around him and the fear that was gripping him. He needed to survive. There was no time for worrying or feeling pity. But something changed as he reached the door, and he realized he no longer heard the machine gun. He stopped moving and drew himself to kneel behind a dusty piano._

_The shots were less sporadic now, coming from single-shot rifles. He could hear whispering and when he concentrated, he could hear the soft pleads to spare their lives or prayers to their God that their deaths would be quick. He felt ill and he paused, trying not to cry or puke, which were both things, he could feel working their way out of his body._

_Suddenly, he heard the machine gun fire and it was right outside the door. He could hear it rattling against something and he had a feeling it was the door. The door could be locked and he sprung up, running as hard as he could through the back stage area to put some distance between the door being blown off the hinges. He prayed that the gunmen weren't on the stage and won't hear his frantic breathing or feet slapping the ground, as he got right behind the curtain at the back of the stage. _

_He stopped running, and paused, listening for motion. It was perfectly silent and it scared him. He switched to breathing through his nose, trying to keep the breaths as tiny as possible as to not make a single sound, and something told him he should duck. _

_He did and the bullet wheezed past where his ear had once been. He swore under his breath, seeing his error in pausing behind a curtain that basically molded to anything behind it, and tore open the curtains in the back. He knew it was a dumb move but so was running behind a curtain that the shooters could see him through. At least he could see the grim reaper coming for him before he died._

_He ran for the far corner of the stage, trying to distance himself from the shooters he thought were coming from the side door and the ones he assumed were in the audience. He saw a door and he opened it, praying it was helpful. _

_It was and it wasn't. The room was dead bodies strewn about. It was flooded in blood and he swore he saw more spare body parts then he saw full bodies. He tried not to focus on it and looked around for another door. He saw nothing, not even a window and he swore, realizing this was a death trap. _

_So he did the only thing he thought he could do. He found some of the bodies that were more put together and covered himself with them, lying face first in the pool of blood. Hopefully they'd assume he was dead and leave him alone._

_He heard the door slide open and felt the vibrations of feet walking along the tile floors on his stomach. He tried to diminish his breathing to not give himself away and prayed he looked bloody enough that he'd blend in with the surroundings. _

_His mind wandered as he lay there still, listening to the door opening and closing as gunmen entered or left. He didn't understand why there were so many body parts lying around. The bodies, though he didn't closely examine them, didn't look like they had limbs ripped off them. They looked like they were cut clean off like amputees. Maybe this was someone else's death chamber that didn't like to use guns. If it was, he might have a fighting chance._

_They were getting closer and he tried not to think how grimy he was feeling and how much he wanted a bath or to wipe the blood off his face._

_He felt a foot right next to him, could feel the light splash it made in the pool and the smell of rubber was a good clue. He felt it touch his body and kick where his ribs were._

_He tried not to scream or react but it hurt! It felt like something broke inside of him and he bit his tongue to keep from crying out. He felt the boot digging into his side and he felt himself being flipped over. He kept his eyes closed and held his breath, hoping the boy would leave him alone. Surely right side up, he could tell he wasn't another corpse._

_He could feel the eyes on him as if it was a physical touch, and suddenly, he felt the foot stomping on the already hurt rib. He didn't have time to stop his scream and he swore inwardly._

_"Get up," the gunmen ordered and Jonouchi opened his eyes to see brown eyes staring him down. The kid couldn't have been much younger then him, black paint covering his face, dressed in a grubby wife beater, camouflage pants and thick work boots. _

_Jonouchi went along with the kid, kneeling in front of the kid as the boy placed a gun at his Adam's apple. _

_"I almost didn't see you lying there. Hell, none of us did. I almost respect that," the kid mumbled, flicking the safety off the pistol._

_But not enough to not kill him, Jonouchi knew, and he met his executor's eyes as the finger came to rest alongside the trigger. Hell, if he was going to die, he mine as well make a lasting effect on the kid's psyche._

_He heard the shot and expected to feel the bullet hitting him or feel nothing as he would certainly die once it hit him, but instead, he watched the brown eyes dull and the boy fell over, still clutching his precious gun. Jonouchi stared at the boy in a mixture of sadness and hope, and forced his eyes to look up._

_A blonde girl was standing at the door, pointing the gun at him, and she lowered it, walking towards him. She stopped to pick up the gun and empty out the cartridge, and she placed the bullets in her already bulging pockets. He noticed that she had a gun in the waistband of her shorts, and she smiled warmly at him._

_"Are you okay?" she asked, kneeling next to him._

_She put out her hand to help him up and he looked up to see a figure looming at the door. He didn't have time to scream out as the gun was shot and as it struck the girl in the back, sending her body forward to fall on his…_

"Jou! Jou! Wake up!"

He could hear the yelling from far away but couldn't bring himself to go and find out what the voice wanted out of him.

He felt something cold brush against his forehead and that was what woke him up. Shizuka was sitting next to him, wiping his face down with a wet cloth, and he suddenly remembered his dream.

"You were screaming, begging for help," Shizuka whispered, clutching his hand. He could see now that she was crying, and he reached out to hug her.

When she had quieted down, he made his request. " Can you give me the phone?"

"Why? Who could you call at this hour?" she asked, getting up to search for the handheld.

"I need to speak to Mai."

"Can't it wait until morning?" Shizuka found the phone under the pile of dirty clothes and tossed it to him. It landed neatly on the bed and he picked it up, dialing her number from memory.

"No. It wouldn't take long. I'll go back to sleep afterwards."

The phone rang a dozen times before he heard a sleepy voice answer, " Hello."

"Hey, Mai. I didn't think you would be sleeping now. I'm sorry for waking you up."

"It's okay. I had to do double shifts at work. What do you need?"

"I am starting to remember the shooting and I have a question. Did you get shot?"

The other line was quiet and Jonouchi swore he could hear his heart beating.

"Mai, you there?"

There was a long pause before the girl answered. " Yeah. I didn't get shot."

"But I saw it in my dream!"

"Jonouchi, dreams are just that. They are not real. Maybe what you are dreaming isn't a memory but something you made up!" She sounded kind of cranky and defensive that Jonouchi knew meant something but he couldn't figure out what.

"It felt real though."

"Dreams wouldn't be any good if we didn't believe for a second that they were actually happening," she responded. " Good night."

Jonouchi clicked off the phone and set it down on the floor. He sighed and stared at the ceiling. He knew his dreams were real. They had to be. But if she wasn't shot…then they couldn't be.

'''''''''' '''''''''' '''''''''' '''''''''' ''''''''''

After Jonouchi's call, she had gotten two more hours of sleep before she had to report to work at five p.m. dinner rush. So at ten of five, she sauntered into the restaurant in her uniform of stilettos, shorts that just barely covered her rear end, and a tight-fitting t-shirt with the restaurant's logo on it, fully made up and hyper from her meal of pixie sticks and diet coke which was all she had in her apartment to eat.

It was crowded already and she was immediately told to start getting orders from the dinner party that had just come in. It was a bunch of middle age businessmen dressed in suits, chugging down alcoholic beverages as if it was their last day alive. She guessed they were Rotarians based on the horror stories she heard about them, and how many people canceled when they were scheduled to work Tuesdays at this time.

She went over to them and she concentrated on writing their second round of drink orders, instead of the leering eyes and the "accidental" touching. She had gotten used to serving the perverts sadly and after she wrote down their sixth bottle of wine that they wanted, she thanked them and walked away to give it to the bartender.

So focused she was on weaving through the dimly lit room with its waiters, patrons, and screaming children – though she had no idea why adults would bring kids to a place like this – that she didn't notice the yelling of one of her dinner guests until he grabbed her shoulder. Instinct took over before she had a chance to think, and she batted away his hand and had her fingertips pressed into his throat, prepared to choke him.

The man looked at her in fear and she realized what she was doing. She let go and stared at him in shock, blinking a few times to try to clear the cobwebs in her mind. "What do you need, Sir?" she finally asked.

"We need a birthday cake."

She nodded and walked away as fast she could. She quickly handed the list to the bartender and told the cook what he had to do, and collapsed in the corner. She was freaked out that she had reacted so badly to someone touching her. He wasn't a threat. She should have known that. He wasn't going to kill her. She knew that. But still, she had responded.

"Mai, get back to work!" yelled the manager and she took a few calming breaths before standing up. She was positive by the end of the night, he would have had of what happened because half of the dinner guests had seen her display of power, and she vowed she wasn't going to mess up. She needed this job so she could afford the plane ticket for her next trip to Japan for competition.

She got the drinks from the bartender and placed them on the serving plate. Checking to make sure she had something to set it on, she hoisted it up onto her shoulder and palm, and made the long walk to the table.

Of course it had to be in the back of the room and all the men were closet alcoholics so the tray was extremely heavy. She could feel the muscles in her arm shaking as she neared the table and as she lowered the food down onto the bench, she heard shooting. Against her better judgment, she set it down very quickly, allowing the drinks to slosh and some run down the container. She looked around frantically for the noise and seeing that it was only one of the arcade games, she gave a nervous smile and reached for the napkins cleaning up the mess she made.

She got out of there with a few catcalls from the men and very little pride intact to see the manager snarling at her.

"What was that?" he yelled.

"I panicked," she responded, not bothering to lie.

He stared her down and she just causally waited for him to stop being a dickhead. The guy was very short and in heels, she towered over him. "This is the fifth time you dropped your tray."

It was actually four. She didn't spill the tray this time.

He continued. " Tell me why I shouldn't fire you."

Now that Mai thought about it, there was no reason for her to beg for her job like she had done the previous nights when she had been asked the same question. " There is no reason you shouldn't fire me," she began and then decided to forgo niceties and say what she always wanted to say about the place. " I am tired of being leered at and being pinched and prodded like a bunch of meat. I am sick of getting drinks for customers and smiling at them when they won't give me a tip that doesn't even allow me to buy dinner. I am sick of you telling me to put up with the groping and all the abuse and shit I take from customers because it's my job and I am sick of seeing your arrogant face every day at work when you don't bring a cent into this place!"

She stormed away, furious at the guy and feeling rather proud of herself when she heard his words, " I make you do those things because you are nothing more than a whore!"

She turned around, resisting her temptation to walk back over to him and slap him. " No, Matt. I am so much more then one of your little whores."

She left to the sound of various people cheering and she slipped off her heels the second she got out the door and walked back to her apartment. In the bright light from the sun and fully awake, she felt disgusted looking at the place. She was sick of living in a dirty place where the roof leaked and there was no heat or air conditioning. She was sick of working three jobs so she could afford to compete and then spend her earnings on a ticket home so she could work the next day.

She was sick of a lot of things and she smiled, opening her safe for the last time, grabbing her deck of cards, and all the money she had saved up.

Maybe the shooting had been a bad thing. Maybe because of it, she just lost another job. But it just showed her what mattered. She didn't want to keep using her looks to get her places and spend all her time working and sleeping. She had things she had wanted to do in her life when she was little, and now…the shooting had granted her the opportunity to. She needed, for her own sanity, to get away from her old life and start a new one.

She ran down the stairs for the last time, and went to the payphone that sat across the street. She inserted a quarter, the only tip she had gotten during her hour of working, and let it ring until someone picked up.

"Hey. I would like to buy a one-way ticket to Japan."

'''''''''' '''''''''' '''''''''' '''''''''' ''''''''''

Kaiba stumbled out of bed to answer the door. It was four a.m. and he had finally got off the phone with an annoying police officer who after three hours of negotiation, had agreed to send him the videotapes of the shooting after he offered to pay her one million yen. It was too bad she didn't know that wasn't too much in American money.

Mai was standing on his front porch, drenched from the rain that had been falling all afternoon and night.

She smiled at him.

He let her in without a word.

**Author's Note: **Sorry for the long wait. Truthfully it has only been a week which is normal for me, but it feels like much longer because if you read my blog, I finished this on Sunday and just haven't uploaded it because I was at Middlebury College, touring.

**Kaiba + Guns: **Kaiba is well-educated, probably the best one in the entire series despite the fact he never goes to school or so it seems, since I remember seeing him in the first episode of the TV series and from then on, in school episodes, he's not there. Then again, it's been two or three years since I've seen those episodes. I saw those when they first came out on the WB, which I believe was 02' because they took Cardcaptors shortly before it I believe.

Back on topic, Kaiba obviously knows business and computers. I view him as someone who would also know something about weapons/guns. I mean, Kaiba Corp. was run by Gozaburo for quite some time and it produced military equipment or funded it. Gozaburo would most likely taught him the basics of it, thinking that Kaiba would just follow along and run the company that way in the event that Gozaburo died or was unable to work.

**Kaiba and Isis: **Isis is probably the only other female in the anime series besides Mai that is noticeably strong. The case for Anzu being a strong women can be argued but it is not obvious. She is one of the few characters who stands up to Kaiba and doesn't immediately gets dismissed by him. Kaiba, I believe, respects her in the aspect that they are similar in the way they care for their brothers, sacrificing so much to make sure they can be happy, but at the same time, I think he gets really angry at her. She is a passive person who allows life to happen while Kaiba has a "I have a plan and I am going to win at all costs" mentality. In essence, she is what he wishes he could be and that is why he sometimes allows her to spew the bullshit about fate, and then just leaves because it depresses him too much to believe fate can't be changed, because he has worked his entire life to do just that and if it can't be changed, it's been for nothing.

**Fate and Destiny: **I remember once I was going in to see my therapist and I got on a conversation with my mother about fate and destiny. The whole exchange with Kaiba and Isis has to do with the two terms and so I will explain what my views on them are.

Destiny is something we are meant to do in life. It is something that is decided at birth and if we achieve it or not is up to us. The abilities we are given such as our personalities, genetics, heritage, etc. exist for us to complete it.

However, we are born with free choice. Personalities and characteristics about ourselves can change through abuse or schooling, or desiring to be someone different then what we are. Destiny therefore is not fixed.

Because we have choices, fate exists. Fate is the result of the choices we take. Our fate could be achieving our destiny or it could be failing miserably at it because we were inadequately prepared to handle it.

**Final Words**

The shooting is finally going to be shown and I am very excited. I have only been having this dream for the past few months and I get to express it now. When I was writing it, I had problems getting the anger and sadness of it. I think this was partially because it was so long ago that I had the vision and I lost the feelings that occur when you get warped up in something that you believe is real.

I found it. When I started thinking about how I would feel and imagining the scene, I cried. I felt miserable all day and in other words, it was perfection.

Please review.


	5. All my life

**Ave Maria**

_All my life I've been searching for something  
__Something never comes, never leads to nothing  
__Nothing satisfies, but I'm getting close  
__Closer to the prize at the end of the rope  
__All night long I dream of the day  
__When it comes around and it's taken away  
__Leaves me with the feeling that I feel the most  
__Feel it come to life when I see your ghost_

The muscles in her arms would tense as she pulled her chin above the bar and balance there, gritting her teeth. She would then release her body and she would fall, dangling from the metal bar.

She would then do this over and over again for twenty times and Kaiba would watch her as he ran on the treadmill. The two had settled into an uneasy routine of coexisting where they only crossed paths in the morning when both would go through their daily workout routines.

He was more of a cardio guy then she was. As he would run, unpleasant thoughts were filter out of his brain and the jumbled conundrums that had haunted his sleep would unwind and he'd see what he had to do. He thought most brilliantly when he was jump-roping, a habit he had picked up at the orphanage to gain him some agility to prevent himself from being beat up, seeing possible reactions and situations that his plan for his new project could cause.

But he had to say that the best part of working out in the morning was seeing her. He didn't want to admit that he enjoyed having her in the house. She had the presence of a piece of artwork that when placed in the right place in the right room, turns the once ugly room into something beautiful.

He remembered the first time he had gone into the mansion, leading Mokuba by the hand as they followed Gozaburo through the labyrinth of priceless antiques and overly extravagant decorations. It was all so fancy and here he was, an orphan, dressed in hand-me-downs from one of the older kids who had gotten them at a homeless shelter. When he looked back, he couldn't imagine fitting into the life he led now. Even now, he didn't go into the East Wing of the house because of its grandeur.

When she showed up at his door, sopping wet, he had offered her a shower and a quick tour around the mansion. She ended up borrowing one of his button-down shirts, which fell to her knees, and he had shown her around. He was struck at how much the lifestyle suited her. He had noticed it when she had visited him for Yugi's funeral but it really resonated with him when she had gone into the East wing with its century-old grand piano, and she had sat down on the bench to stare around. Despite her lack of the puffy ball gown and the difference in the time periods, it would have made a beautiful painting. She belonged.

He had played on the piano several times for Gozaburo when the man was entertaining. The piano was too big and the stretch that his fingers made to hit the keys made them ache. It was like a monster waiting to eat him and often after he played, he would have nightmares. It scared him because it was a reminder of how much he needed to change if he was going to survive Gozaburo.

Mai had moved to the wall and had her fingers placed against it as she bent down, doing some ballet move. From what he had noticed from the few times he had gone to the ballet, her form was excellent, knees extending equally over her toes, butt tucked under, all muscles tight. She got out of her squat and moved to the balls of her feet, balancing, hands over her head. He could see the ridge of muscles in the back of her calves, and he made him smile. Ballet was beautiful to watch as well as graceful which was why he went every year to see at least one performance. Something about its ridged nature yet the sense of freedom and ease it conveyed appeared to him, and he saw that it did to her as well. She seemed at peace when she went through the kicks, squats, and the general demonstrations of flexibility.

His twenty-minute run was up, and he walked it until the band on the treadmill stopped moving. He had run three miles, and he grabbed his bottle of water, chugging it down.

He passed her without a word as she took his place on the treadmill and he went to the closet to get out his saber to practice for his fencing lesson.

''''''''''' ''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''

The brilliant idea came to him while watching a chick-flick with Shizuka. One of the girls had been put into a center for alcoholics and now all the women were bonding as they talked about their problems to each other, sobbing and screaming and generally making asses of themselves.

Jonouchi stood up, mumbled to a sniffling Shizuka that he was getting more popcorn, and went into the kitchen to use the portable phone.

He had his counselor's number in memory and he called her up.

She answered on the first ring and he set up an appointment with her later in the day.

He microwaved more popcorn and took his seat next to Shizuka who was entranced in the movie. He was more focused on his plan.

The movie had reminded him of the theory behind group counseling. If someone wasn't willing to talk, if you put him or her in a room with people who have the same problem and are talking, the person not wanting to talk will eventually open up.

Of course, Jonouchi had no intention of forming a group therapy to accomplish that. His personal opinion of talking in groups was that it was a hideous form of treatment. Who wanted to admit that they were fucked up mentally to your friends and peers?

That was why he was going to propose it. If he had to suffer through five more sessions, he was going to make others suffer as well. Kaiba was his primary target. Why not? Kaiba was, by the law, an adult. He got to choose his care and it didn't involve being scrutinized by mental health professionals. If the therapist agreed to it, all he had to do was to get Mokuba to agree to it and then Kaiba was stuck doing it. Plus, Kaiba was a basket case of trauma and insanity. The therapist would be so concentrated on Kaiba's issues that Jonouchi would get off free.

Ah, the idea excited him so much.

''''''''''' ''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''

Mai did not go into living with Kaiba with the initial thought it would be easy. She didn't know the man nor did she know anything besides him except he was filthy rich and the top-ranking duelist.

Having spent several days in his home, she still didn't know much more other then that. She knew how he liked his coffee – black, a ¼ cup of coffee grinds to make one cup of coffee, his fixation for showering – she counted three a day, and that he owned a Toon Blue Eyes White Dragon stuffed animal.

She wasn't sure that when she got there where she would be staying. Kaiba had given her a room on the floor he slept on, and so often when she was wandering the halls late at night, unable to sleep, she would hear him screaming. One of the nights, she had peeked in and saw him clawing at the air. She didn't know what he was dreaming about and she didn't ask him when she ran into him while working out.

It was funny, the lives they both lived. They had almost identical patterns for waking. Both drank coffee, worked out, showered, and then did what they had to do for the day. Mai thought that maybe after the first day when she discovered this that Kaiba would either ask her to change what she did or he would change his routine. Yet every morning she would be working out and Kaiba would stumble in, blurry-eyed. He would shower first in her designated bathroom and then hand it over to her. When she'd get out, he was gone and at the office.

She ended up spending a lot of the time at Kaiba Land since there were free tickets lying around everywhere in the house. Duels were always going on with money at stake and she was broke, spending all her money on a plane ticket and then on a taxi, which was nearly impossible to find, to drive her the 200 miles to Domino City. She had run out of money about ten miles away from the mansion and had been forced to walk in her heels. She didn't want to ever feel that humiliated again as she did when she stood on Kaiba's doorstep.

Truthfully, she didn't know why he let her in. The impression she got about him from other people that he was cold and aloof, only warming up to his brother. She did see that. They passed each other every day in the house and never spoke a word. She didn't mind though. She wasn't one for mindless chatter either. But a cold man doesn't just allow some random girl who he met once to live in his house free of charge, giving her free reign of the place. For all he knew, she could be a serial killer or a leech trying to get his money. He trusted her and that scared her. She was used to people thinking the worst of her instantly.

'''''''''''' '''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''

Jonouchi whistled cheerfully as he peddled up the steep hill to Kaiba's mansion. Not even physical exhaustion could cure him of his chipper mood and he set the bike down next to one of the freshly manicured hedges before springing to the door.

He hit the doorbell and waited patiently for the door to slip open. He wasn't sure anyone would be home at four p.m. because of Kaiba's insane work schedule and Mokuba's after school activities but he had gotten bored watching old TV sitcoms all alone at home.

The door opened and he stepped through, gasping at Mai who had let him in. He hadn't expected her to be in Japan anytime soon and for her to be at Kaiba's, it made him suspicious.

"What are you doing here?" he asked as she led him to the sitting room. It couldn't be called a living room because it didn't look like it ever got used. It was just a bunch of couches and chairs clustered together with a coffee table between them. There wasn't even a TV.

"I got sick of being in America."

"But, Kaiba?" He couldn't understand why anyone in his or her right mind would willingly live with the billionaire.

"He's not a bad guy, Jonouchi." She hit the button to put up the footrest.

"Maybe not to you but the guy has been giving hell to me and Yugi since the day we met him. The first time we met, he rips up Yugi's grandpa's blue eyes and then when Yugi creams the sucker, he tries to kill us…"

Jonouchi was expecting her to be shocked or angry. He didn't get anywhere near that dramatic of an emotion. She looked at him passively like she was waiting for him to finish.

"Why isn't that bothering you?"

She smiled serenely at him. " Why do you want it to bother me?"

He didn't have an answer for that, at least not one he cared to admit.

"Seriously, it's the past," Mai shrugged. " I didn't know him when it happened. The person I know is the person I met a few days ago. That is the image of him I go on."

"He was a psychopath."

"People aren't their mistakes," her eyes met his for a second before they darted away. He swore he saw sadness there but he couldn't be sure.

"Well said." A loud booming voice was coming from the doorway and Jonouchi looked up to see Kaiba standing there, smirking. Jonouchi immediately regretted what he said. It wasn't that he felt sorry; he was scared of being killed.

"Did you know, Mai, that Jonouchi used to beat Yugi up for fun? He almost killed him once with a well-placed jab to the stomach. A lot of internal bleeding with that one, funny to say I am the psychopath when you nearly killed your best friend…"

Jonouchi growled and Kaiba leveled his cobalt eyes on Jonouchi, smiling viciously. "And how about the time you decided to have the death duel with Yugi and you set him on fire? You laughed and…"

"Shut up!" Jonouchi yelled, jumping to his feet. " I was being forced to do it."

"By who? We all know you longed to be better than Yugi."

"Malik and that stupid rod of his!" Jonouchi and Kaiba were almost nose to nose for Jonouchi was standing on his tip-toes to compensate for the difference in height.

"Magic isn't real or did you forget that?" Kaiba sneered and he turned to look at Mai. " Anyhow, Jonouchi here almost succeeded in killing Yugi. If not for his sister, Yugi would be lying on the bottom of the ocean, dead! All because you cared more about getting yourself free then your best friend!"

Kaiba just nearly avoided the punch that Jonouchi threw at him, and before Mai's eyes, it was a full-on fistfight. She sighed as they both fell onto the ground in a fury of flying limbs and walked over to them. She kicked whoever was on the top of the pile, and placed herself bodily between the two.

She had kicked Jonouchi, it turned out. The heel of her shoe did what Kaiba hadn't managed to do – make him bleed. His lip was torn up and his clothes were rumpled but otherwise he looked to be in perfect health. Kaiba was lying on the ground; breathing heavily with a sedated grin on his face like he had just ran a marathon that he had been practicing for what seemed like years.

"Stop it. Both of you haven't always been the greatest person. But you're here now, a better person than you were then. I don't need to know what you did," she scolded and she sat back down in her chair as she watched carefully as the two boys sat down on opposite ends of the couch.

"Why are you here, mutt?"

Mai rolled her eyes. Kaiba couldn't get past provoking him. But Jonouchi wasn't much better. She could see him getting angry.

Jonouchi smiled. He wasn't sure how to break the news in the best way so he decided to take the direct approach. " Kaiba, you have to go to group therapy with me."

Mai watched them as they got into another fistfight and she sighed again, sitting back to watch the entertainment being offered to her.

''''''' '''''' '''''' '''''' '''''' '''''' ''''''

"You're a moron," she mumbled as she pressed the icepack to Kaiba's clothed back. He hissed at the cold that seeped into the skin and he swore he could hear her giggle.

"It's not my fault he decided to be an asshole, " Kaiba responded as he scooted closer to the banister so she could sit on the same step as him.

She shrugged as she picked up the bottle of peroxide and dipped the cotton swab in it. " Turn towards me."

"Why?"

"You have a cut on your forehead. It needs to be disinfected."

Kaiba grabbed the mirror off the step above them, and stared at himself in the mirror. There was a gash like she said but it wasn't bleeding too badly.

"It doesn't need to be."

She rolled her eyes. " Yes, it does." She raised the cotton swab and he ducked away from the advancing hand.

"Please, don't," he mumbled.

She stopped immediately and handed him the swab. Something told her that it wasn't a plead because he would feel pain or discomfort but because it was something from his past that he was afraid of, like it honestly terrified him.

She watched him swab himself and he handed the bloody ball back to her. She set it in the pile of things she needed to throw away along with the band-aid wrappers and excess tape for the gauze.

"Are you scared of being touched?" she asked.

He didn't answer. It really didn't matter to her if he did. They sat there in silence

"I don't know why he decided to do this to me," Kaiba suddenly spoke.

"Counseling? It's obvious, isn't it? He wants revenge for all the times you teased him. What better way to humiliate you then getting you to open up and spill your deep dark secrets."

He chuckled, leaning back to stretch his body along the pathway of steps. "It's a good plan but I can't be forced to talk."

"You'll talk," Kaiba looked up at her, confused. " You can go in being as quiet as you want to be but it's their job to draw you out and get you to talk. Even the most stubborn person can not say a word to them." She leaned back to lie next to him. He could feel the heat radiating off her and he ignored his impulse to get closer to it.

"You talk like you know."

"I don't."

"You don't like talking about yourself."

"How acute of you."

He noticed that she didn't look at him when she answered, not showing her smile. Her blonde hair was making a carpet on the stairs, spread out around her face like a fan, lightly brushing his arm.

He focused on ignoring the itchy feeling and his need to brush it away from his hypersensitive skin. But he couldn't resist and he moved his arm. Her eyes shifted to him after he did it but she didn't comment. He was grateful.

"I'm going to put them away. Do you want anything while I'm up?"

He shook his head and he saw her bare feet with the cherry red nail polish on her toes walk up the stairs, carrying the medical supplies up to the guest bathroom.

''''''''''' ''''''''''' ''''''''''' '''''''''''

_It was the Amber Room, a maze in which he wandered for hours until he found the door he needed. He climbed the spiral staircase like a crazed animal, hands and feet scrambling up the stairs with the echoing noise of slapping flesh filling his ear._

_The door that stood at the top was the same color as the walls and floor were, amber, but they somehow seemed darker because of the aura that he felt seeping out of the door. He knew it was the one he wanted and he pulled on the rung. It slid open with a loud clang and he walked in._

_Yugi was standing in the room, back turned to him. The spikes of hair had more blackness to them then what had been there previously, and the clothing was no longer tight leather and belts but a flowing white robe trimmed in gold. Sandals adorned the feet and he waited patiently for Yugi to turn around and acknowledge him._

_It wasn't Yugi who turned around to face him. It was the other Yugi, the pharaoh and he gulped as the ruby eyes settled on his._

_"Why did you do it?" the deep voice rumbled._

_"I don't know."_

_"Why did you do it?" the voice repeated again._

_"I don't know why I didn't."_

_He kept his eyes lowered, indicating respect, but the pharaoh didn't care and he felt the small fingers clutch around his throat. It took both hands to wrap themselves around his neck and the other Yugi stood on his tiptoes, pressing his thumbs into his windpipe to halt the airflow more quickly._

_"Why?" His head was being shaken back and forth and he couldn't answer because of the motion and the lack of oxygen running through his veins that allowed him to form coherent sentences._

_"Why! Why! Why! Why!" It was chanted like a mantra as he was backed into a wall and his head was slammed at every pulse of the word into the golden engravings._

_"Why didn't you save him?" The Pharaoh was screaming now and tears were staining his face. _

_The grip of his neck loosened and he removed his head from the distinct print it had made in the wall, wiping the blood off the wall with his hand as to not stain the beautiful surface. _

_He made his way to the Pharaoh who was kneeling on the ground and he bowed, thanking him, and he walked out of the Amber Room._

Kaiba opened his eyes to see Jonouchi staring at him, hand covering his mouth as if he was trying to cover the fact he wasn't laughing though his shaking body was enough proof that he was.

"Why are you laughing?" Kaiba asked.

"I never knew you screamed like a girl," Jonouchi managed to get out between bouts of laughter and Kaiba glared before reaching over to grab a tissue. He dabbed the back of his head and checked the tissue to make sure he wasn't bleeding.

Jonouchi looked on curiously before commenting, " I didn't know you could cry either."

Kaiba snatched another tissue and wiped his eyes, continuing to glare at the blonde. " Why the hell are you in my room?

"It's ten. Time for our appointment!" Jonouchi smiled evilly and Kaiba would have smacked him if the boy were in his arm range.

Jonouchi left the room to allow Kaiba to change and Kaiba walked over to his dressers where his alarm clock was perched. He stared at the clock and wondered if the world was going to end. He hadn't slept past seven in years.

He rummaged through the closet and decided on his Battle City uniform of the white trench coat and black slacks with the signature belt with his initials on it. It gave him the appearance of normality, he felt, since the public had seen him in the outfit before.

Downstairs, he found the therapist sitting in one of the armchairs in the center of the cluster while Mai was sitting on the couch opposite of Jonouchi who was in the Lazy-Boy yawning, barely keeping awake. He took a seat next to Mai on the couch, and the therapist turned her face to look at him.

"Hello there. What's your name?"

Kaiba stared at her in disbelief. He considered being polite but why would he want to be nice to someone he didn't invite into his life? " I am positive that you know who I am, …" his eyes flickered to the nametag. " Tularosa."

It was funny. She looked Japanese. Maybe she was educated in America or some Spanish speaking country and decided to rename herself after her chosen people. Psychiatrists weren't the most popular people in Japan. Everyone wanted to just keep quiet with his or her problems and suffer; denying her money to list off the bullshit that everyone knew deep down but had no intention of changing.

"And you, my dear," she turned to Mai who instead of listening was painting her toenails with a peachy nail polish. Kaiba wanted to grin and wished he had done something that blatantly disrespectful. Then again, she wasn't required to be here. She could leave at any time unlike him who had unfortunately promised Mokuba he'd see it through to the end.

"What he said," she mumbled, making a gesturing moment with her chin as she smoothed the brush of her tiny pinky toenail, not getting any of it in the crevice between the nail and skin. Kaiba was impressed.

Ms. Tularosa didn't glare at them but she certainly couldn't hide the flash of anger that crossed her eyes at the audacity the teens were showing. "Before we start our session, I would like for all of us to state our goals for the period of time we will be spending together," Kaiba tried not to laugh and he was shot a dirty look. "You first, Katsuya."

"Uh…I don't have a goal."

"Come up with one. We can not accomplish anything if we do not have something to set out for."

The blonde tangled his hand in his hair, using as fingernails as teeth of a comb to straighten up the disheveled strands. He looked thoughtful then confused, and Ms. Tularosa sighed, looking down at her watch.

Jonouchi gave Kaiba a pleading look and Kaiba shook his head. He wasn't going to bail the person out who sent him to this waste of time. The look shifted to Mai and she mouthed something to him. Jonouchi's nose crinkled as he got confused, and Mai mouthed it again, a light hiss coming out of her whisper.

The idea registered in the blonde's head and he spoke to the therapist who was expectantly waiting for his answer. " My goal is to get out of going to these sessions as soon as possible," he told her.

The therapist's jaw dropped literally and Kaiba covered his mouth to hide his laughter. He could see Mai smirking out of the corner of his eye as she moved to her long fingernails, pressing white stickers to the fingers to do a French manicure.

"That isn't a goal, Katsuya. Please give me a more realistic one."

She had a very proper voice, suited well for a doctor. It was calm and didn't show emotion well. Kaiba wanted to see the image shattered.

"Uh, doc…that is my goal. I don't want to have to see you anymore." Mai lost it and chuckled, a high-pitched nasal sound compared to the overall silence of the room. Both of the boys cracked a smile and the doctor's eyes turned to Kaiba.

"Seto, what…"

He interrupted her immediately. " Kaiba. I prefer to be called Kaiba."

"Why is that?"

He met her eyes. " I don't like people who I don't like using my familiar name." He stared her down until she relented on the question that was threatening to escape from her.

"And what is your goal, Kaiba?"

He had to think about that. He chose to take a similar route. " I want you out of my house."

"If you want me to leave, then why did you invite me here in the first place to have this meeting?" she asked.

"I didn't. The mutt here decided to blackmail into this."

"Mutt?" she questioned. Kaiba kept silent, not wanting to explain. He noticed Jonouchi didn't speak up either to defend himself. He felt a growing camaraderie for the boy against their common foe.

The therapist sighed at yet another dead end and turned to her last victim. " What about you, Ms. Kujaku."

"Mai," she corrected.

"Mai, what goals do you have for our sessions together?"

The blonde girl looked up, dipping the nailbrush into the white paint and tightening the top. She lightly shook her fingers to allow the air to dry the nails and she replied, " I have no goals nor am I a part of this session. I just came here for the entertainment."

The therapist had no response for that other then a disappointed stare and she turned back into the circle so she could see all three. " I have some goals for our time together. Since none of you are taking this seriously, my goals shall be your goals. I want this to be a place where friends…"

Jonouchi coughed loudly.

She ignored him and continued. " …Where friends can talk amongst each other about their problems and be treated with respect. I want for you to wander your hidden depths and bring out your darkest fears and confront them. All of you are still in grief over the tragic losses you have been dealt and reliving the horrors of that faithful day. I want you to come out of this with hope and the realizations…"

Jonouchi and Kaiba cracked at the same time and burst out laughing, stopping the poor lady half way through her speech.

"What's so funny?" she asked, narrowing her eyes at the two boys.

Neither was capable of answering, Kaiba still laughing and Jonouchi wheezing for breath.

"Did you do any research prior to the listing of your goals or do you give these goals to every client you meet?" Mai asked.

"I don't get what you are inferring."

"We're not your normal clients. In case you haven't noticed, none of us have any intention of opening up to you or each other. This isn't group therapy no matter how much you are trying to pretend it is. We all know each other and we don't like one another. As for our grief and how we deal with the aftermath, it quite frankly doesn't involve you…"

"How does it not involve me," the counselor yelled, finally losing her temper. " I am a licensed professional who is trained to deal with your problems. I don't see three young adults who are dealing with their issues. I see three children who gang up on the voice of reason so obviously in pain and denying it so ferociously. I see…"

Mai interrupted her again. " What right do you have to tell us how we should be feeling or what we should be doing at a certain time? You may be a professional but you have no clue where to start with our problems. You never had to be in some random building and watch the people all around you being shot at. People are yelling at you in a language you don't understand and you run for your life, ducking behind others who get shot instead of you as you targeted. You don't have to watch your friends get shot or yourself kill to keep your life. You don't have to kill your own friends who are begging for mercy as you try to find an exit and they see the gun that is strapped to your side and see their way to salvation. You don't have to see everything in life gone in one split second and left with the knowledge that nothing will ever be the same again. All you know, Ms. Tularosa, is what you have read out of a textbook about people like us and your sessions with drug addicts and anorexics in America. So don't tell me what we do is wrong. We are coping and that's enough."

The room was dead silent except for the quick breathing from Mai as she caught her breath and then the sound of water being swallowed as she tried to relieve her parchedness. Jonouchi was staring at her in fascination while the therapist was in shock and face had turned white. It was only Kaiba who thought of what she had said. For the first time, he had seen her actual reaction to the attacks. All previous times it had come up, the topic had been avoided and no emotion was shown. But now, she looked like the girl she was on the cover of the magazine, the wild haunted warrior whose strength shone even stronger when she was vulnerable.

He watched Mai exhale and grab the tub of peach nail polish to paint on the rest of the manicure, and he stood up.

"Tularosa, we will have an appointment with you in two days, same time, if you want to see us. We will finish the hour in our own time. You will still be paid for your services," he told her and she nodded dumbly at him. His butler escorted her to the door and Jonouchi looked at Kaiba confused.

"Why'd you do that? I thought you didn't want to see her again."

"I don't, mutt. But we're caught in this contract with her and this was the quickest way to get rid of her."

Mai held up her hand to stop Jonouchi from replying and she scooted to face Kaiba. " What is in the contract? Like what are the terms of the sessions."

Kaiba's face blanched and he motioned for his butler to retrieve the folder from his desk.

"What's wrong?" Jonouchi asked.

"I just remembered something. You signed the contract when?"

"Right after Yugi's funeral. I wanted to stay here and so they faxed Shizuka the papers and I signed them and sent them back."

"Did you read them?"

"Uh…no."

"Fuckin' mutt," Kaiba mumbled, snatching the papers away to hand them to Mai. The girl scanned them, reading both sides, and she sighed. Kaiba took it as a bad sign.

"It says that the minimum amount of appointments Jonouchi has to have is five, so we have four left no matter what. However it does say that if she believes that he is in need of more therapy, she can extend the number of appointment indefinitely until she believes him to be cured. And as for you, Kaiba, your contract binds you to Jonouchi so you will be stuck as well."

Jonouchi growled much like the dog he was always being called and Kaiba scowled. He was impressed that Mai understood the contract though. His lawyers always had to explain them to him because he found the cramped tiny writing and eloquent prose annoying. He liked things to be simple and clear-cut. Her understanding it so quickly and easily made him again wonder where she learned it.

"So basically, if we want to get out of seeing her, we have to met her goals and look like we have changed," Mai continued and both boys nodded. "We all have to pretend to be friends and actually talk about our problems in front of her, to show we are cooperating."

"Alright. Sounds good. But I have one question. Why are you participating in this with us when you aren't bound by the contract? Shouldn't you be avoiding it like the plague? You don't have to share anything personal or embarrassing. You should get out while you can."

She laughed at Jonouchi's comments. " I don't like her. And besides, I am the only one to get out of it because unlike both of you, I am an adult and have no one who can override my decisions like you, Kaiba."

That was news to Kaiba. He had never thought of her age. From the surprised look on Jonouchi's face, it had never crossed his mind either. " Just how old are you?" he asked.

"24. I am a Scorpio and I used to live in America. I am currently penniless, homeless, and have no family to fall back on. That's all you need to know," she smiled at Jonouchi. " You?"

"17. Aquarius. Uh…I live alone?"

"That was a lame summery of your life," Kaiba remarked.

"Can you do any better?" Jonouchi shot back.

"Sure. 17. Scorpio. Owner of a multibillion corporation, champion in chess, duel monsters…" Jonouchi coughed and Kaiba amended what he said. " ….Was a champion in duel monsters, Tetris, and I am the sole caretaker of Mokuba."

"Wow. That tells me so much about you, Kaiba," Jonouchi rolled his eyes.

"It's better then yours. At least mine lists my accomplishments."

"Well, everyone knows you are a billionaire and a top-class gamer."

" And everyone knows you live alone!"

"They do not! I just started living alone a few days…"

"Guys, shut up!" Both boys immediately quieted down. "It's not important whose was better. The only thing that does is that we now know something about each other's life."

" I don't want Kaiba knowing about my life, " Jonouchi mumbled.

"Why's that?"

Jonouchi didn't answer but Mai read the subtext. Jonouchi was scared of his life not measuring up to the adroit Kaiba who appeared to have everything in the grasp of his palm.

"Kaiba, what about you?"

"I don't like talking about myself." It was bad enough that Kaiba's past was an open book in many of the adventures that Yugi had led his friends on, but it had only been Anzu and Yugi who had noticed the flaws it revealed. People being allowed to see your flaws will be your downfall. It wasn't just a saying that Gozaburo slammed into his head but a lesson he had learned countless times.

"No one does, Kaiba. But both of you are missing the point. Group counseling is not about healing. It's making friends with people similar to you who will help you when you falter. It's learning to deal. And I know you two don't like each other a whole lot, but you two are the only ones left on your merry little bandwagon of friends. And if you talked to each other without you, Kaiba, making fun of Jonouchi, and Jonouchi allowing his taunts to get to you, you'd realize that you aren't that different."

Jonouchi processed what she said quickly, watching Kaiba out of the corner of his eye. He didn't want to make friends with such an arrogant prick who spent his life trying to outdo other people. But Mai was right. Kaiba was his only link to the life he had once had and there were many times he did respect about Kaiba. Of course, they were hard to think about when he was with Kaiba but he knew if he thought about it for a long time, he could think of something.

"I have a question I need answered," Kaiba said, ending the contemplation. " I've noticed this before. How do you know so much about psychology?"

Neither noticed how uncomfortable she looked before she answered. " Observation."

Kaiba was going to respond when he felt the vibration at his hip. He pulled his cell phone out of his pocket and flipped it open.

"Hello?"

He listened for a few seconds and slapped the cover down, standing up. " I have something I have to pick up in the mail. We'll talk during dinner."

He sprinted out the front door and Jonouchi grabbed the remote off the coffee table to turn on one of the few TVs in the house.

'''''''''''''''''''''''''''' '''''''''''''' '''''''''

There was too much deja vu and Kaiba should have realized something was going to go wrong with the dinner when he returned home from visiting the post office two hours away. Jonouchi and Mai had been sitting across from each other in his small kitchen, reserving the two end chairs for him and Mokuba who was hovering by the microwave, waiting for the ice cream to defrost in the microwave.

They were all lined up by the counter to get mashed potatoes, meat loaf, and broccoli in cheese sauce, or to take out whatever leftovers were in the fridge. Kaiba entered the room to find Jonouchi standing in front of the mashed potatoes, wide-eyed and face pale and sickly looking.

"Don't like them?" Kaiba commented.

Jonouchi slowly shook his head and curiosity got the better of him and Kaiba wandered to the other side of the counter to peer at what Jonouchi's eyes were so fixated on.

It was a bowl of some white creamy liquid, or maybe it once had been. It was now a crimson color, and he wrinkled his nose. It didn't look too edible.

"It looks like blood," Kaiba dryly commented. Jonouchi nodded, and Kaiba caught the sight of Jonouchi's hands shaking. It obviously reminded him of something and he heard the clicking of heels against the floor.

Mai came up behind him and picked the bowl up, dipping her spoon in it. She took a sip of it and sat down at the table, seemingly unaware of the pair of eyes that followed her. She took another sip and a swig of her soda, and focused her attention away from her food and onto the two boys who were gaping at her.

"Why are you giving me such strange looks?"

Jonouchi kept staring and Kaiba hit him in the side with his elbow. " Get moving, mutt," he hissed and it snapped Jonouchi out of his trance and the boy went back to piling mashed potatoes on his plate. He turned his attention to Mai. " What are you eating?"

"Vanilla Yogurt. It's all you had and I didn't like the flavor so I added some canned cherry filling to it."

He didn't know he owned canned goods and he sliced into the meatloaf. He must have gotten it into a tough piece because despite his sawing, the meat wouldn't separate. Growling angrily, he moved the butcher knife up into the split half of the meat loaf and slammed it down, hoping to break it apart. A loud clanging noise rang out as the knife hit the glass plate the meat lay upon, and everyone with the exception of Mokuba who was calmly eating his ice cream jumped. Kaiba backed away; staring at the knife angled 45 degrees into the meat, afraid.

It was Mokuba who finally got up and pulled the knife out of the meat, patting his brother on the back comfortingly. Kaiba muttered an uneasy thanks and sat down with his dinner guests.

It was complete silence as they ate. No silverware brushed against the dishes, no slurping or sounds of people ingesting food, not enough a single breath. It seemed like everyone was scared to make a sound because it would set someone else off.

"Do you have to eat that right next to me?" Jonouchi growled, the only one willingly to break the silence. Kaiba followed his gaze to Mai who was spooning the reddish pudding into her mouth.

"Why does it bother you?"

Jonouchi just glared at her. Kaiba could see out of the corner of his eye that his brother was leaning forward, trying to figure out what was going on.

"It's just very red," he whispered to the blonde girl.

"It's not your blood," she responded.

"Please…"

Mai sighed and stood up, picking up her bowl. She moved rather deliberately, walking to the trashcan and she stepped on the lever, opening the top. Her eyes met Jonouchi's as she slowly scraped the red clumpy pudding out of the dish and then poured the liquid section out of it.

She returned to the table to face an ill-looking Jonouchi. He took a sip of his water before muttering, "Thank you."

"Welcome," she answered, leaning back in her chair.

Another uncomfortable silence was threatening to take over the room so Mokuba spoke up. " So, Mai…when did you get your start in dueling?"

Kaiba was proud of his brother. The question was innocent and didn't provoke confirmation. It was perfect for getting to know someone with and he did want to know more about the girl.

However the question didn't have its desired effect. A shadow passed over her face and her eyes lowered, looking sad before they returned to Mokuba. " I was ten and I needed money. I stole cards off some kid I met on the street and used his deck at a tournament and I won. The prize money was good so I kept doing it."

Jonouchi and his brother seemed to accept the answer but Kaiba found it vague. It told everything but nothing in particular. It was a prime tacit in not lying but not wanting to talk about it either. He knew…he used the approach far too often.

"Did you use your Harpies back then?"

She paused, eyes wide like a deer caught in the headlights, and she shook her head. Again, Kaiba found it an interesting reaction.

"Someone I really cared about gave them to me." She walked over to the fridge and pulled out a carton of orange juice. She poured herself a glass and returned to the table.

"Who was he?" Jonouchi asked the minute he sat down.

"What makes you think it was a he?"

"You're not a lesbo, are you?" The poor blonde was panicking and Kaiba laughed.

"She never said that, mutt. She didn't even say if it was a lover. It could have been a family member or a friend," he said and Jonouchi's expression relaxed into a familiar glare.

"I knew that!"

"So, Jou, do you have something against lesbians?" Kaiba teased.

"Of course not! I love lesbians. Cool people, they are. Don't mind those gays either…" He waved his hands around frantically. It gave Kaiba the impression of denial. "I just didn't want Mai to be that way."

"Reason?"

Jonouchi snarled and Kaiba smirked. It seemed the blonde had a little crush he didn't want to admit to, and he turned his gaze to Mai. She was drinking, acting unconcerned about the fight taking place next to her, but he knew she was watching every movement and reaction.

"I'm just not comfortable having friends that swing that way," Jonouchi explained, trying to redeem himself.

"You do," Kaiba pointed out.

"Huh?" Jonouchi looked confused and Mokuba's ears perked up.

"Ryou was gay."

"What?"

Kaiba was surprised the mutt didn't know. It was obvious to everyone else in the school. Ryou was always being beaten up for no good reason even with his friends being the people they were and rumors were always floating around that he was gay. Then there was the time he caught one of his guards standing next to Ryou's bedside after he had passed out during Battle City. He had paused, thinking it was just that, guarding the body, but after he saw the guard kiss his cheek, he knew. It didn't bother him too much. The guy died when they had crashed into the docking station that Noa's mind was stationed.

"He dated one of my bodyguards."

The glass of lemonade slipped out of Jonouchi's hand and smashed, glass flying everywhere. Mai squealed, jumping out of her chair to avoid the pieces that threatened to slash her.

"You're lying."

Kaiba shook his head. " I'm not."

Jonouchi looked like his entire world had crashed down on him. "He…he would have told me something like that. He…he was our friend. He can't be. He can't be…" he mumbled.

"He was your groupie."

"He was not!"

Kaiba rolled his eyes and Jonouchi exploded. "How dare you defile his memory?"

"Not all the memories we hold of people are correct," Kaiba shot back. Jonouchi climbed to his feet, prepared for a fight and Kaiba stood up as well.

"If I can't trust what I sense then what is right?"

Kaiba didn't believe that the words came out of Jonouchi's mouth. They were philosophical, too smart for Jonouchi and he paused, not sure what to say.

"We have to trust one another."

It had been awhile since Mai had spoken and they all waited for her to continue what she said. Her mouth was open, ready to say something, but she never found her voice. They watched surprised as she left the room. Kaiba sighed and walked around to the other side of the table to clear away the dishes. It had been very productive. Mai didn't tell anything about herself and he and Jonouchi fought. He was beginning to see a pattern.

'''''''''' '''''''''' '''''''''' '''''''''' ''''''''''

He waited until it was dark out and he slit the manila envelope open. He pulled the tape out and slipped it into his pocket before leaving his office to go to the boardroom. He had a TV in there and since it was on the far side of the house, no one would hear the commotion.

He passed Mai's room first and he heard noise. Worried that she was awake, he paused by the door, and listened. Besides the sound of his own heartbeat echoing in his ear, he swore he could hear soft crying.

He wanted to confront her and tell her it would be okay. It was the same feeling he often felt for Mokuba shortly after Duelist Kingdom when Mokuba began having the nightmares of being trapped in the card. He would scream for hours and Kaiba ended up sleeping next to him for weeks until it ended. He never told Mokuba that he had the same dream.

But he knew her. She was like him. She didn't want anyone to see her weak. So he wandered down the hall and stopped at Jonouchi's room. All he could hear was snoring and he quickened his pace, hitting the double doors that led to the other wing.

It was cold in there, almost like a freezer despite the warm temperatures outside. He wrapped a blanket around his shoulders and entered the boardroom, padding over to the cabinet. Opening it, he pulled out the TV and slipped the video in, grabbed a box of tissues, and took his seat in front of the TV, unprepared for the sights that would soon greet his eyes.

**Author's Note: **Another chapter is out of the way. It is the longest chapter so far and yet I feel I have said nothing. It didn't turn out how I planned but I don't know where to fix it so…

Onto my theories and why I did what I did

Kaiba and Mai: I don't see Kaiba as someone who understands romantic love. He knows devotion and love for one's own kin and that is why I say that he likes Mai at the house because she makes the house look pretty. She is a beautiful object to him and that is important in a sense to the way she is between Kaiba and Jonouchi. She is the thing they want to acquire such as a vase. It's like spontaneous shopping. It looks good, you want to buy it, so you do. But you never looked at the whole thing to see its flaws.

Mai: Mai's psychological analyses are the vital part of the healing process. Though she admits no feelings about herself, she is the true voice of reason behind the three teenagers. I would think it's out of character for her to make those assumptions. Of all the characters with the exception of Kaiba, Mai uses psychology when she duels. She intimidates people with her whole card-scenting thing to throw them off their game by making them believe she has an advantage and she takes advantage of her looks, making sure to look as feminine as possible so she appears weak.

I also can picture her as someone who does like to work out. Of all the girls, she is the most built, not just in the chest department but everywhere. She seems like she could kick someone's ass and I tried to think of exercises that she would do. Dancing would one of them. She's very aware of herself and her body which comes from exercise, yes, but dancers are probably the most aware of all athletes about their body shape and their conditioning. Plus it makes a good image for Kaiba to watch.

Ryou: I had no intention of making Ryou gay. It was during an hour of writer's block when the thought occurred to me because I was looking for a way to end the scene, realizing that I wasn't able to accomplish what I wanted to do with this chapter. It's hard to do anything with any of the characters because so few of them are left, and the ones that are left have no real relation to Mai, Kaiba, or Jonouchi.

Ryou is the only one in Jonouchi's group who isn't a part of it. They always claim to include him but in any event, he's never there. It makes you wonder why he was friends with them in the first place. It could have been because of his Yami and wanting the puzzle but I think he was looking for people to protect him. His past is an open book and he is so meek. I see him as a uke.

I considered making Yugi gay for the same reasons I chose Ryou but I thought it wouldn't work as well. Who would he be gay with? Yami? That would be some sick form of masturbation. I had a great line for Kaiba if I had went with that idea, but I forgot it now.

The listing off of the birthdays: Mai tells them her birthday to try to get them to open it. Yet none of them say anything about themselves except for their astrological signs. That says a lot. I am a Scorpio like Mai and Kaiba both are, and I do know a few things about Jonouchi's signs. The characters do semi-fit their birthdays. I always found that weird how it works out. Kaiba, in the series, is dark, brooding, and powerful. Those are all Scorpio traits and you find a lot of those in Mai to a different degree. I will do more research on Jonouchi's signs later.

Kaiba and Touch: I think Kaiba would be afraid of being touched by people. He is introverted, for one, and he obviously has some scars from his childhood. Gozaburo probably beat him and could have done other crap to him, and so he sees people as enemies. No one gets near him in the series with the exception of Mokuba. Being adverse to touch isn't something that is absolute. There are certain people who can touch you and it doesn't creep you out. Mokuba would be one of those people for Kaiba because he is his brother.

And I find it funny that the people who hate being touched are the ones we want to touch the most. Enough said on that.

Jonouchi and Kaiba: All the two boys do ever is fight. I wanted to show the way that both will skew the truth in order to win the argument. Kaiba knew very well that Jonouchi had no control over himself in the duel with Malik as does Jonouchi know that Kaiba has changed for the better and has saved their asses far many more times then he had tried to kill them. They both find excuses to insult the other because they view each other as competition, not only for Mai which I have been trying to hint it, but as alternate ways to live their lives.

I hope you enjoyed this. It is sort of long and I was going to write more for this chapter but I decided to be nice to myself. Next chapter will consist of the video footage Kaiba got from the shootings.


	6. Gravedigger

**Ave Maria**

_Gravedigger  
__When you dig my grave  
__Could you make it shallow?  
__So that I can feel the rain_

The picture on the TV was grainy and it was hard to discern objects from one another in the dimly lit hallway showcased in black and white. Kaiba judged from the angle that the hallway seemed to be that the camera had been put on the doorframe overlooking the front door. He could see the stirrings of people outside through the small windows on the doors and he fast forward until the first person walked in.

It was himself and Kaiba thought he looked magnificent and ugly at the same time. He walked like a king down the hallway, sauntering down the hallway so the tails of his white trench coat danced behind his back. If it weren't himself, Kaiba would have hated the guy. He was far too arrogant and self-assured for his own good.

Random duelists, ones that Kaiba did not bother to know the names of, followed him through the hallway, eyes darting around nervously as they drank in the sights. Why were all the duelists either high school dropouts or social rejects, Kaiba wondered. They looked like they had never seen a school before. When he thought about it, he realized he was the only duelist who had made something out of themselves that didn't involve the actual action of dueling.

A gaggle of girls were the next to come into the camera view and Kaiba took a step closer to the TV to watch them. He had once heard an impassioned speech on the beauty of the ladies from some of the guys who had sat behind him on a train. They were infamous on the dueling circuit; not for their skills, but for the way they dressed. Their attire consisted of matching jet-black ruffled mini-skirts and a fitted t-shirt with the name of their group "Black Widows " written across the chest.

Kaiba thought they were probably the ugliest women he had ever seen in his life. It wasn't that they weren't pretty but they looked so fake with their spidery eyelashes and rosy cheeks. Plus, they weren't that great of duelists. The nine girls were really three teams of three who won the tag-team duels, which no one gave a fuck about in the real world.

He noticed that they were all giggling although he couldn't hear any noise to verify that. His video self turned around and they just froze, looking guilty. Kaiba didn't remember doing that and he watched himself turn around and the girls start speaking again, slapping each other on the back. It was like a cult ritual and Kaiba made a mental note to get his hands on the real videos so he could hear what they had said, just to quench his curiosity.

Mai was right behind the girls and Kaiba noted with pride that she was scowling at the girls. She towered over them in flips flops despite the four-inch platform heels that the girls were wearing. A bit of information wove its way through Kaiba's head that people often thought Mai was friends with the nine. From the looks she was receiving back from the girls, there was no friendship. Mai was their ultimate rival. Unlike the nine, she was the top-ranked women duelist as well as in her age range, 20+. She was the type of women that guys would give up everything to get a hand on and could take advantage of the male attention.

Mai walked past the gaggle of girls who had stopped to glare. She weaved her way through the duelists and before she left the camera range, she stopped dead in the center of the hallway and looked up. Her eyes met the camera and she smiled, before continuing down the hallway and out of the camera's scope.

No one, not even himself, had noticed the cameras when they had walked in. Again the blonde intrigued Kaiba. He remembered looking around and seeing nothing out of the ordinary. Now that he knew where it had been positioned, he still didn't know how she had seen it. There had been nothing out of the ordinary about the wall.

He chalked it up to one of her many mysteries and watched as Yugi and his little posse entered the hall. Yugi looked nervous, fidgeting with the gold chain around his neck and Kaiba noticed that none of his friends even noticed the pain stricken expression on his face. It hadn't been that long of a time since the Pharaoh supposedly disappeared, which Kaiba still wasn't sure was real or not and thus chose to say it wasn't real, and he didn't know if this would be the first time Yugi would have to duel without his precious friend.

Jonouchi and Honda were arguing over something and Anzu was looking to be trying to mediate between them. Ryou was trailing behind Yugi, wearing the same forlorn expression. Kaiba never noticed how depressing their little group was when they weren't on stage in front of him, preaching their beautiful friendship. How could they not see that their founder looked like he had died and was restuffed to give an illusion of aliveness.

"I never noticed…" a soft honey-toned voice whispered.

Kaiba managed to control his urge to jump and he turned around to see Jonouchi standing at the other end of the table. He snatched the remote off the table and shut it off. The room went dark except for the thin curtain of moonlight that blanketed the floor right next to the window.

"How'd you get in here?" Kaiba asked.

"I followed you."

He was ashamed to admit he hadn't heard the mutt sneak into the room or thought that the blonde was faking his sleep.

"I kept wanting to think that Yugi be okay without Atem, since he had all of us. But…without Atem, none of us would have been friends with him. Atem and the adventure was what linked us together and it broke the minute he was gone."

The old part of Seto Kaiba, the part that had been constantly beaten in duels by Yugi, wanted to rejoice in the admittance that the friendship wasn't the godsend they all proclaimed to be. But the new part of Kaiba only felt sad that it wasn't real.

"Was Atem real?"

Jonouchi looked at him strangely and sat down on the windowsill. "Of course, he was."

Kaiba sat down as well on the windowsill. He leaned against the cool glass, the condensation soaking into his t-shirt. "No. Really…what proof do we have of his existence?" Jonouchi opened his mouth and Kaiba shook his head. " Besides the fact all those weird events happened revolving around that stupid puzzle of his and the unexplainable ways things always turned out, couldn't it just be multiple personality disorder? I mean, Yugi did get hit in the head a lot probably. Atem looked exactly like Yugi except he did things with more confidence. It could have been a protection mechanism against stress and battle."

Jonouchi stayed silent for a few minutes, digesting Kaiba's theory and the fact the brunette was being nice to him. "Your theory could work except for the unexplainable aspect of it. You are in every ancient relic with Yugi. How do you deny that? I could understand seeing you in a painting or a sculpture but Yugi is unique looking."

"I can't deny it," Kaiba mumbled, exhaling.

"Why do you fight against magic then?"

"I want to believe I am in control." Perhaps that was too much to revel to Jonouchi but Kaiba was tired and passed caring about what he thought.

Jonouchi nodded and inclined his head towards the TV. " Can I watch the video now?"

Kaiba looked up, grabbing the remote for precaution. "Why?"

Jonouchi stood up, yawning and he stretched out his body. " There are a lot of things I don't remember and don't know about it. All I have is a dream and it may not have happened."

"I blocked most of it out myself," Kaiba admitted.

"Do you think Mai remembers any of it?"

Kaiba thought about it for a millisecond and nodded.

"I thought so. Why do you think she hasn't spoken up about it?"

Kaiba smirked. " We haven't asked her to."

"Good point. But would she tell us anyway if we did?"

"Touché."

Jonouchi chuckled. " Is that why you got the tape?"

Kaiba nodded. " I want to understand what happened." He climbed to his feet and pulled out two of the plush chairs, setting them together close to the TV.

"Are you going to watch his death?" Jonouchi asked, taking his seat.

"I have to watch them all."

"Why?"

Kaiba pushed play and Yugi and his friends continued to walk down the hallway. " To know," was his simple answer and Jonouchi focused on the tape.

A gym with lines painted on the floor to mark the various end zones of games and hard gray folding chairs were in rows, every seat taken by loud noisy students waiting for the duelists to show up and provide them with some entertainment.

"Why are we watching this? All that happens is you and Yugi make a speech and we all go our separate ways."

Kaiba glared at the complaining boy as to say don't watch it if it bores you. " I know. I remember the camera and it rotates. It may give us a glimpse at the audience."

Jonouchi didn't ask why. He didn't want to annoy the billionaire enough that he got kicked out before he got to see the film. He didn't want to see it, truthfully, but he tended to take opportunities when they were given to him.

Finally the camera swung around to the audience and Kaiba pounded the pause button. Trapped on the screen were several thousand kids and the faces blurred together for Jonouchi. He saw Kaiba stand up and pace over to the TV, kneeling so the screen was eyelevel with him.

"What are you looking for?"

"The shooters, or at least the ones I remember." Kaiba must have spotted them because he reached into the back pocket of his sweat pants and took out a tiny notepad. Jonouchi didn't bother asking why Kaiba kept one on him, especially in the middle of the night. He chalked it up to mad genius.

Kaiba scribbled furiously and ripped the paper off, jumping to his feet. He set the paper down on the table and sat back down.

"I am having a yearbook sent here from the school. I need the names of the students who did it so I can run background checks on them," he explained as he hit the play button. Jonouchi just nodded as the tape was fast forward to the point where everyone was filing out of the gym and into their respective rooms. The time stamp read in the corner that it was 9:25. Jonouchi vaguely remembered that the shootings took place a few minutes before ten. He gulped and Kaiba turned to him.

"Ready?"

Jonouchi could only nod as the feed from the camera was cut and replaced with a new one.

Kaiba gasped next to him as he looked upon himself and Yugi standing in front of a window, ejecting the holograph boxes from their duel disks. Kids were watching on, crowding around them in a circle. The window made a serene backdrop with the pine trees outdoors swaying in the wind for the otherwise heated duel.

The video Kaiba immediately got a hold on his infamous dragon, and the Blue Eyes barreled out of space, wings flapping hard enough to ruffle Yugi's hair. Yugi's eyes were so big like he had never seen the creature before him and was deathly afraid of it. The dragon roared and Yugi flinched, drawing his card. Kaiba could hear himself laughing, the audio in the particular camera stronger then the previous ones, and he wanted to hurt himself. It was so cruel for him to do that when it most likely felt like, to Yugi, his first time dealing with the monster. He really was the nasty person that Yugi's friends told him he was.

Yugi drew a card, King's Knight, and Kaiba watched himself look on in horror as the combination played out like it always did, its result being all three knights were on the field: king, queen, and jack. And then Yugi called his God like he always did.

When Kaiba had dueled it, he had honestly believed that Yugi had chosen Obelisk the Tormenter to mock him since it had been his card originally. Now, he could see it was only chance and it pained him to see himself actually believing his paranoid delusions. He saw himself getting angry and Kaiba gripped the armrests, knowing what would come next.

Yugi and Kaiba had been given the youngest kids in the building, around ten or eleven. They were beyond excited and frightened as a thunderbolt hit the dueling field and from the ground rose a hulking blue mass. The audio picked up their cries and cheers as Yugi pointed toward Kaiba's video self.

The God began its run, leading with its mighty stone fist, and Kaiba bit his lip, trying not to yell out as he heard the bullet went off and watched it hit a tiny girl in pigtails in the front. She fell forward onto the dueling field and Yugi halted his monster.

"Are you okay, Miss?"

Gunfire pierced the silence, the light rick-a-tack of a machine gun, and the camera caught every second of the destruction. It was a massacre as the five boys who had stood so silently in the back, dressed in discreet white t-shirts and jeans, mowed down their fellow classmates who were blockaded in by the duel and the wall of bullets.

Jonouchi looked over at Kaiba whose eyes were fixated on the screen, tears already running down his face, with knuckles turning white from the force he was using to grip the armrest. He wasn't blinking or breathing. Jonouchi was worried and moved to take the remote off of Kaiba's knee.

"Don't." A single word order and Jonouchi's eyes returned to the TV. He could feel his eyes burning and he knew he would be joining Kaiba shortly in crying.

Kaiba and Yugi were on the far side of the room while their monsters, Blue Eyes White Dragon and Obelisk the Tormenter, hung in the air waiting for orders. They were using their duel disks as hammers, trying to break open the window. The glass wouldn't crack no matter how hard Kaiba hit it and Yugi couldn't get the window to budge open.

Video Kaiba looked away from the window and gave a frantic look around. Both boys watched in horror as Video Kaiba's face dropped as one of the shooters aimed their gun at Yugi's back and pulled the trigger.

"Yugi"

Yugi turned his body around to face Kaiba. "What?"

Kaiba's Blue Eyes surged forward suddenly but it didn't beat Obelisk who literally dove in front of its master. For such a solid looking fearing God, it was only air and the bullet passed through it and hit Yugi straight in the chest, right where his puzzle had once lay.

The scream Video Kaiba let out could have waked the dying and he sprung forward, blind with fury, too preoccupied to see that all six gunmen had their guns trained on him. He knocked one of the gunmen down and flipped him over to use him as a shield as the bullets rained down and pried the machine gun out of his grimy hands.

Jonouchi didn't want to watch the next part and so looked over to Kaiba to gauge his reaction. Kaiba had stopped crying and his blue eyes seemed to be sunken, like he had once again retreated into himself. The only sign that he wasn't a doll was the twisted smirk on his face as he watched himself shoot thousands of bullets into the five remaining gunmen.

The sound of guns ended and all was silent. The sound of birds chirping filled the audio of the video like some horrible ironic mistake and Jonouchi turned his eyes back to the TV.

Kaiba had walked over to Yugi and was collapsed next to him, holding his body on his lap. Yugi was struggling for breath, blood pouring out of his stomach, and Kaiba stared down at him like one would do with your own baby.

"You're going to be okay. You're going to be okay. You're going to be okay, " Kaiba mumbled, a mantra to try to keep him calm. "I'll call for backup and you'll be fine. You are going to live." He was fishing around in his pockets for his cell phone and he grabbed it, fumbling with the keys.

"Helicopter, second floor, playground. Now," he barked shakily and he set down the phone, combing his fingernails softly through Yugi's hair. "They'll be here in a few minutes,"

"I'm dying, Kaiba-kun."

"No you're not."

Yugi coughed and Kaiba positioned Yugi so he was more upright.

"I'm dying, Kaiba."

"You can't die," Kaiba whispered. " I wouldn't let you die."

"Can't you just accept things for once?" Yugi chided before moaning, hands moving to clutch his stomach.

"No. I can't accept defeat."

Yugi smiled.

Another gunshot rang out in the distance and Kaiba looked up, eying the door.

"They're nowhere near us. The helicopter will be here in just a minute. I can hear it."

"Don't lie," Yugi mumbled, closing his eyes, sighing.

"Don't go to sleep on me!" Kaiba yelled and he dropped his voice back down a whisper. " Please."

"You got what you wanted," he mumbled.

Kaiba looked at him confused. "What?"

"You've won."

Kaiba waited for Yugi to explain himself but no noise came out him. "What did I win?" he whispered. Yugi still didn't answer. " What'd I win, Yugi…" he shook the boy. "What'd I win…." He shook him harder. " What'd I fuckin win…? Answer me! Damnit! Answer me…ans…" his voice cracked and he was crying.

It hurt Jonouchi to watch Kaiba cry. The sobs literally looked like they were being wretched from his body and he was screaming nonsensical words, and he watched Kaiba bury his head into Yugi's shoulder.

"Why? What'd I ever do to deserve this," he muttered. "Why is he dead?" Kaiba looked up at Obelisk who was hovering in the air, the duel disk still on and activated. " Give him back to me! He doesn't deserve this! I do! I deserve this! I should be dead! I'm a horrible person and he's kind!" His yells were so frantic and eventually the blades of a rotator drowned him out as the helicopter hovered outside the window.

Jonouchi watched as the glass was shattered and two men descended on ropes through the window. He watched as they tried to drag Kaiba out who was slowly descending into shock, clutching Yugi's limp body like a teddy bear, blood staining his precious trench coat and hands. Finally the bigger one scooped him up and carried both Yugi and Kaiba out while both their decks were scooped up.

The image on the tape began to fade out and Jonouchi hit the pause button, wiping the tears from his eyes.

"Are you okay, Kaiba?" he asked.

Kaiba didn't answer him immediately. "Yes."

Neither of them was okay and Jonouchi stood up to grab a box of tissues.

"He spited me in the end," Kaiba mumbled." I won…what a load of shit."

"It's true. You beat him. You lived."

Kaiba turned his steel gaze at Jonouchi and long had the dead eyes ended. He looked like a wild animal ready to attack. " It wasn't how I wanted to win."

Jonouchi could think of million of responses to that but all of them were likely to get him hurt.

"Come on. We're getting some food."

"I'm not hungry."

"Just come. You could use a break."

Kaiba followed Jonouchi reluctantly out of the door.

''''''''''' ''''''''''' ''''''''''' ''''''''''' ''''''

After Kaiba got a pot of coffee in his system, he looked almost human and Jonouchi led him back to the boardroom. Kaiba dragged his feet like he was dreading what would come next, body slouched like his spine no longer wanted to support him. The only part that looked normal to Jonouchi was Kaiba's eyes, which had returned back to being lively and hypnotic.

They took their seats and Jonouchi set the bowl of popcorn he had made on his lap. He grabbed the button and hit play without a single word exchanged between the two boys.

The death scene of Honda, Anzu, and Ryou was what played and Jonouchi watched it without shedding a tear or really thinking about it. All he thought was that it was extremely gross to watch and he wanted to fast forward. They had heard the shots and had run for the front door. The minute Anzu had stepped out the door; a fireball consumed her and spread down the hall along the wall, literally vaporizing Ryou and Honda. They were screaming and suddenly it stopped, the only sounds left was the plopping of the water dropping from the sprinkles in the ceiling, putting out the fire.

Jonouchi knew that he should have been feeling something. They were his friends, after all. But it really was feeling like he was a passive observer, watching a film. For god sakes, he was munching on popcorn while he watched a tape of his friends dying!

He never did feel a connection between any of them, that was how he justified his lack of response. They had similar interests and were outcasts and thus joined together and called it friendship. They were all so terrified of being alone that they pretended they had some beautiful friendship when Jonouchi would have never spent time with them if they weren't always around when he dueled. Anzu was linked to Yugi as was Ryou, and Yugi linked to himself and he to Honda. The only person he trusted in his little group was Yugi. It could have just been that they were the most alike, being duelists, but Yugi appealed to the side of him that wanted to be the protector like he could never be to his sister.

Besides their deaths were so quick and sudden, like if he looked away for a second, they were gone. It wasn't like Yugi's, which tugged on every heartstring because he was suffering and miserable.

Jonouchi looked over at Kaiba and saw the same expression that he probably was wearing except Kaiba was truly emotionless. He wasn't going to fool himself, Kaiba didn't care about the people who they had just watched die. Most likely, to Kaiba, they were deserving of it. All they ever do for him was preach his faults.

"Good?" Jonouchi asked.

Kaiba nodded and Jonouchi fast forward to the next scene. He saw the familiar blonde hair and both boys felt the stirrings of excitement as they realized they would be watching Mai's journey.

Mai had somehow been paired with all nine of the "Black Widows" and neither group looked happy about it as they entered their room. It was a small room with desks scattered around with boys sitting on the desks or leaning back in their chairs, balancing on its back legs. Seeing a spot in the back that was open, the duel occurred there.

The room full of only guys watched transfixed by the nine-on-one duel, which was ferocious. Kaiba was pleasantly surprised to find that Mai, even being horribly outnumbered, was creaming them with her multiplying Harpies. She was ordering her Harpies to finish them off when she stopped and looked away from her opponents.

The camera was in the front of the room like most of them had been and so the video looked more movie-like then it probably should have. She had no reason to look at the camera. There had been no noise or distractions from her duel. She looked scared and she dove for the ground before the first bullet was even fired.

Jonouchi and Kaiba exchanged surprised glances as people began to scream and the Black Widows looked around nervously, stone still. Mai's eyes were fixed on the figure that wasn't shown on the camera, still lying on the ground, ready to lunge behind the bookcase that was only a few feet from her.

Some male yelled something in English. Jonouchi didn't understand but he got the idea that it was a threat. Kaiba whispered to him its translation, "Get on your knees and no one get hurts" and from outside the range of the camera emerged the shooter. He shot his pistol in the air and people dressed like him, black ski mask and camouflage streamed in the room, each with a pistol on their belts along with a sharp knife.

It looked more like a robbery then a school shooting and all the kids fell off their desks and chairs and kneeled. The Black widows looked at each other for support and knelt; being careful to make sure their miniskirts covered them. Mai didn't budge from her position on her stomach.

"Listen up. No one dies as long as we get the girls. Clear?" Kaiba whispered in Japanese over the shooter's voice.

It made Jonouchi ill to see the boys nod. They were such chauvinistic pigs. You were always supposed to keep the ladies safe, no matter what. That included at risk of death for you.

The first shooter kept his gun level, waving it around to keep the thirty or so boys at bay as his comrades walked over to the girls who were shivering and crying.

"Oh, look here. Someone is not obeying,"

Mai wasn't kneeling as much as she looked like she was ready to pounce and run. She met the gunmen's eyes as he placed the barrel against her throat.

"Do you want to die, bitch?" one of them growled, using it to tip up her chin. She didn't answer and only gave them a crazed smile.

Sudden clicking of guns and they were aimed in every direction. Mai's eyes darted around and returned, taking in the scene.

"We'll kill them if you don't come with me," the lead shooter said and the shooters looked at him strangely. Kaiba realized it wasn't a part of the plan as he translated it for Jonouchi.

Mai's eyes went back to the nine girls who kneeled in front of her, guns placed to their head. They looked like the children they were, black streaks down their cheeks from their smeared make-up and she smiled at them. She stood up and walked over to them, the gun still trailing her.

"I don't like you. But I will not be your executor," she told them and turned to the gunmen. Her game face had returned, eyes shining and calculating. "Where do you want me?" she yelled in English.

He pointed to the door behind her, a small storage closet from the looks of it, and she walked in it, leaving the door open. The gunmen went to follow her and his friend caught his arm.

"Why are you going against the plan?"

"I want to fuck her as she bleeds," was his response.

Kaiba couldn't bear to translate that. Jonouchi could figure it out himself.

The door closed as he entered the closet and all the four remaining gunmen looked at the girls. They motioned for the girls to come to the center of the room where the boys were circled around.

"Strip," one of them yelled and the girls looked at each other confused. They didn't know English and a gunshot was shot off in warning. One of the girls wailed, her tears falling faster and on the side of the camera, Kaiba could see one of the boys in the circle trying to motion with his hands with they had to do. He was promptly killed.

Jonouchi had never seen girls get out of their clothes so fast. They stood naked in front of the boys who couldn't help but leer at them like perverts and the gunmen were licking their lips as if they were food, which they were. He had thought he would have enjoyed seeing nine hot girls naked in front of him, but all he wanted to do was to just throw up and tell them to put their clothes back on.

There was a noise from the closet that broke the silence and everyone looked at the closet in anticipation but it was silent. The guys turned their eyes to the girls and advanced towards them.

Jonouchi adverted his eyes, knowing what would come next. They were going to be raped and watched by boys who were too scared to stand up for what was right.

All the eyes were so focused on the girls that no one besides the camera noticed the closet door sliding open slightly and a thin gun barrel slipping into the crack. It fired and the gunmen went down, falling on top of one of the girls who screamed.

The gunmen panicked, shooting anything and everything and the two boys watched as all the boys, seven of the girls, and all but one gunman were killed in the resulting chaos. The gunmen just stared at the room in shock and the two girls, unbelieving that it had happened.

It was like he just woke from a bad dream and he almost looked sorry before Mai, who had snuck up behind him, stabbed him in the back, killing him. She watched him fall and pulled out the knife, wiping the blood off on the floor before walking over to the girls who cowered before her.

"Put your clothes on. We need to leave," she told them. Both girls blinked at her and she sighed, scooping up a few of the items of clothing and tossed it to them. " We don't have time to waste."

They were in shock and unable to respond. They looked like the dolls they had always pretended to be and Mai was about to yell at them again when she turned her head towards the door. Kaiba and Jonouchi hadn't heard any noise on the video but she must have because she dashed across the room, snatching up a few guns and climbing up on the cabinet that was stationed next to the door.

The two girls were virgin sacrifices in the center of the room and laughter could be heard from the hall. Kaiba saw the guys enter and saw the realization of the luck that had been bestowed upon them. It was only now that the girls picked up the clothes and covered themselves like they were ashamed and Mai shot the gun. It pierced one of the guy's skull and she shot again with the other gun, killing the other guy. The remaining guys looked around nervously, not knowing where the shots were coming from, not the most intelligent people around, and she shot again, picking a few more off. The three that were left shot at the top of the cabinet and Mai slid off the other side of the cabinet, landing solidly on the chair before launching herself at them with the knife. It was a repeat performance as she sliced her way through them.

She was bloody and slightly bruised when she walked over to the girls who were staring at her wide-eyed. " It's alright. Get…"

Two shots. They hit the girls and Mai spun around to see one boy, dying, clutching his guns and firing them off. She growled and easily dodged the next bullet he shot off as she walked towards him. She stomped on his wrist and the sound of bone crushing continued as she kicked him over and over again until he was long dead.

She climbed over his body, and snatched from one of his belt loops a tiny hatchet. Giving a parting glance at the two girls, she walked to the door and peeked out to see the hallway. Mai sighed and left the room.

It took awhile for the camera to cut to her walking down the hallway but the audio picked up immediately. Jonouchi can keep her muttering to herself to not panic, to keep breathing, you'll be fine, as she descended down the hallway.

When the camera cut to her, Mai was seen peeking into doorways, checking to see what happened. Many of the rooms contained slain people and the only ones she stopped at were so she could kill the dying survivors. She would shoot them from the doorway without any apologies or graces and move on, storming down the hallway.

In the distance, the explosion could be heard that had killed Anzu, Ryou and Honda, and Mai stopped to watch it through one of the windows. The entire wing of building was consumed by fire and she picked up her pace, sprinting.

She got to the main hallway where four sets of double doors sat. Two led to the outdoors and the other two led to different wings. She paused and walked to each window, peering out to see if there were bombs.

The two that went outdoors were the last bombs to go off and she avoided them. However, there was a door that lay just in the west wing that had a door that led outside which was oddly enough not wired. It had been one of the few doors that hadn't been, Kaiba remembered from his research, and he could see that Mai saw that as well. And yet she just shrugged and went into the other wing where there were no doors and shooting could be heard clearly. It was the place that Jonouchi had been.

Jonouchi leaned forward as the camera followed her down the hallway. She shot anything that got in her way and it looked like a video game because of the ease that it all happened. Her and the gun seemed to be made for each other, like she was a professional, and she reached the auditorium. She ran down the aisle, jumping over the bodies and leaped onto the stage, following the exact path Jonouchi had taken.

She reached the door and she opened it, firing on the guy who had the gun to Jonouchi's throat. So far, it was the same as Jonouchi's dream down to the same expression and words that she had said to him, and Jonouchi scooted even closer to the TV, nose nearly brushing against the screen. The camera was on the doors so he had the view of Mai's back and the question he needed to know was going to be answered.

He watched the guy sneak up on her. He desperately wanted to scream to warn her away as it was placed to her back, and he saw the small finger pull the trigger. Her body jolted and she fell.

Kaiba clamped his hand over Jonouchi's mouth before his scream could wake up the entire house and Jonouchi watched wide-eyed as she rolled, landing in a crouch and she threw the hatchet at the guy. It struck him in the center of his forehead and he went down.

"She was shot, right?" Jonouchi questioned, pausing the video.

Kaiba nodded.

"That bitch! She lied to me. How'd she survive it?"

Kaiba rolled his eyes. " You didn't notice that she looked a bit bulkier on the top?"

"Uh…no."

"She was wearing a bulletproof vest."

"Oh…well, when did she put it on? We didn't see her do that."

Kaiba sighed; amazed by the way Jonouchi seemed to mess details. " There is layover in the tape. There is a good ten minutes that passed between her seeing the girls die and her walking the hallway."

"I can't believe she would lie to me about that."

"Well she didn't," Jonouchi looked at him surprised. " Being shot suggests the bullet hit her. It didn't hit her. Therefore she was not shot."

"But…"

"Lying is all about the wording, Jonouchi. I didn't lie to you. I just led you to believe something other then the truth." Mai's voice surfaced out of the darkness and they could see her pale violet eyes illuminated in the moonlight in the doorway.

"How long have you been watching?" Kaiba asked.

"Long enough to know things I didn't already know," was her coy response. Her face and body was hidden by the darkness but her thin elegant fingers could be seen tapping against the wooden doorframe.

"That's lying, Mai."

"I don't see it that way, Jonouchi. Sorry if it hurts your feelings."

Silence and the tape stopped, unfreezing from pause, and the entire room went black except for the moonlight streaming through the window.

"I'm not going to apologize if that's what you are waiting for. You are both watching a tape that shows things I haven't told anyone without even telling me. You could have asked if you wanted to know or could have asked before you went ahead and watched my personal drama play before you. But again, I don't want apologizes. What's done is done. I'll talk to you both in the morning."

She disappeared out of the doorway suddenly and Kaiba spoke, assuming she was probably still in ear shot. " If we had asked, would you have told us?"

"Probably not," was her delayed response that echoed throughout the hall, reaching their ears and Jonouchi hit the play button on the remote.

It didn't work and he stood up to see what was wrong.

There was no tape in the VCR anymore.

**Author's Note: **I hope I didn't disappoint too much with the flashback scene. You will get the rest of Mai's story from her perspective. The way I was looking at it, I have led up to the parts that were already known and soon, maybe next chapter, I will get to all the events that were the precursor to the photo of Mai, dragging Jonouchi through the flames.

Now to answer some questions

God and the purpose of the videos

Shizuka wants to believe that it was fate that caused the shooting. Isis would say the same. But Kaiba was not born to follow the path that was set out for him. He is someone who is very analytical and obsessive, so of course, he would get his hands on the only real piece of evidence there is and watch it, hoping to find some answers for what happened.

I think that is how most people deal with crisis and life-altering events. Look at the recent London bombings. What does the news do immediately? They begin to question what happened and try to find things that will tell why it did. Kaiba has the same mindset of "I must know what happened so when it happens again, I shall come out the winner and survive."

Then there is the opposite approach, which is that of God. I remember vaguely after 9/11, which was a sort of blur in my life because I was going through my anorexic phase at the time and was more concerned with not being put in a psych ward, that some people were declaring it as the end of the world. We're all going to die. That's the fate approach like something is definite and there is no way to change it.

Which way is correct? I should be saying both, but the analytical approach is the only one that is applicable in life. We do have to accept the things we can't change but everything after such an event changes and we change with it. We must change for the better.

On the subject of God, the story does contain God, the dueling cards. And in a sudden moment of brilliance, I decided to go on a metaphor that was on my mind. I have noticed that in the series, The God cards are treated almost like Gods. They are indestructible and people look at them in such fear and awe. Everyone wants to have them in their lives but no one can obtain them because they are not God themselves. Yugi, in essence, is God on the dueling field. He is the King of Games, having the fate he always wants coming to him.

I thought it was interesting how the cards become real. In the Doom Arc, they were throwing out their cards to battle Dartz's forces and this also occurred in several other episodes. It's like, in the duelists minds, their cards become a real force like an axe to battle the forces of evil. They become human and that is why God was the card Yugi had on the field when the shooting began.

God is supposed to be almighty. He is supposed to be caring and giving and do the right thing. People are always declaring his presence as real although they can't sense him. They want to assume that God will save them if they get in danger, not realizing it is they who must save themselves. I wanted to show in that scene, when Obelisk jumps in front of Yugi to block the bullet, the limitations of God. God is not real. He is not solid. He is not anything but our imagination at work. The bullet passed right through Obelisk and hit Yugi. God had no power in the shooting. God has no power over human action. God had no power to change fate.

If I have offended anyone who does believe in God, I apologize. Most of what I said was more metaphorical then saying he doesn't exist, or at least I hope it appears that way. I am agnostic if it explains my position in any way. Agnostic, in case you didn't know (which I didn't until someone explained it to me and I was like, oh…that's what I am), means you don't know if God exists. And since you can't prove it, you don't worship God. If someone were to prove to you God was real, you'd be like "That's great." His existence or lack of existence has no effect on your life.

Reactions to Tape

I chose to show a lot of the death scenes as Kaiba and Jonouchi watching a tape because it gave it a more split feeling. Death is important but what is more important is the reactions the survivors have to it. The normally stoic Kaiba is finally getting in touch with his emotions and thus can be a good narrator for what is happening in the tape because he observes everything and applies it to himself. That is why he makes the comments about himself and about the little gang of Yugi's friends. When we watch ourselves on tape, going about our daily lives, we are able to notice the things we never see before. Kaiba sees how others perceive him as, the arrogant billionaire, and it disgusts him. He sees past the façade of Yugi's friends and sees the rag-tag gang of misfits who hang together out of necessity of belonging somewhere, not because they are friends.

Jonouchi is Kaiba's antithesis to the tape. While Jonouchi is more in touch with what he feels then Kaiba, he isn't Mr. Emotional. He hides what is feeling but yet in the scene, Kaiba is the one who breaks down and is crying and reverts back into a shell-shocked state while Jonouchi just stares ahead, watching it like it was a movie. He doesn't cry over his own friend's deaths and does cry at Yugi's although he is still more composed then Kaiba is. The only strong emotion Jonouchi feels during the viewing is anger and that is because he was lied to. I think that Jonouchi isn't heartless but I think he deals better with the prospect of death better then Kaiba. Kaiba has no reason to cry because they weren't his friends but at the same time, the people who Kaiba fixates on are closer then friends or rivals but a section of his soul. He loses a piece of himself when Yugi dies. Jonouchi, his friends are his friends, but they aren't a part of him and so he notices they are missing in his life but it doesn't affect him except a bit of sadness and nostalgia. He is also the only one who has had some time to come to terms with Yugi's death. Sure, he isn't very far along in the grief process but he is doing much better then Mai who was ignoring it and is slowly getting closer to owning up to what she did and her emotions, and Kaiba who spent a week comatose then suddenly sprung up and threw himself back in his work and/or his obsession to discover the truth.

I didn't show Mai's reaction. I see her reaction as Jonouchi and Kaiba see her in the last scene. She is standing in the door, shrouded in darkness with only the paleness of her skin and the white of her eyes showing up. She is bathed in darkness just like the mystery that surrounds her being. They can't see much of her and neither can the reader. There are hints to what she is feeling; mainly in the first chapter and a few when she speaks. Overall, what we do know is that she does feel something. Although she didn't know anyone before the shooting, she has seen them. She does know a bit about them. She could have formed attachments prior to the shooting.

Just to tell you, the last sentence was a huge hint. Take it and run with it….after you review.


	7. Eclipse

**Ave Maria**

_All that is now  
All that is gone  
All that's to come  
and everything under the sun is in tune  
but the sun is eclipsed by the moon. _

"There is no dark side of the moon really. Matter of fact it's all dark."

He must have been tired out from the drama the previous night because he didn't wake until eight o'clock. The curtains on his windows were wide open, the sunrise evident from the reddish light that shone into the room, giving it a pre-apocalypse glow. He could have swore that he had shut the drapes out of habit when he stumbled in his room around three, and his eyes drifted to the chair in the corner.

Mokuba was in his pajamas, staring blurry-eyed at him. His knees were hugged to his chest like he was in some sort of pain, and Kaiba felt the initial spike of guilt and worry.

"What's wrong?" he asked, throwing the comforter off him and slipping on his robe over his t-shirt and shorts with a speed that rivaled a parent rushing to their crying child. "Are you hurt? Hungry? I'll get up and cook something…"

Mokuba sighed. " Nothing's wrong, Nisama."

"But?"

Mokuba chuckled over his brother's puzzled stare. "Mai's up and Jonouchi is the bathroom. I thought you might need to talk to her."

"Why would I need to talk to her?" Kaiba slid off his robe, seeing he didn't need it, and went to his closet. He shuffled through it, locating a black button down shirt, and with his back to Mokuba, stripped off his shirt and put on the shirt in one smooth motion. Some people may have found it odd that the male didn't even change in front of his own brother but it was something Mokuba was used to. His brother was afraid of his own nudity and the marks that marred his body, contradicting his perfect nature.

"I think you know why."

"Did you sneak into the room and watch the tape like everyone else?" Kaiba sounded annoyed and Mokuba smiled angelically at his brother.

"No. I was awake for the fight you and Jou had with her."

Kaiba nodded and went to his dresser to grab a pair of pants. He walked into his bathroom, kicked the door closed, and changed out of his shorts and into the pants within a few seconds.

"So what do you want me to do?" Kaiba sat down on the bed, slipping his dress shoes out from under the bed.

"Just talk to her. Admit that you were wrong to watch it without permission."

"But she wasn't going to tell us. She lied to Jonouchi about what happened."

Mokuba sighed. " Maybe not. But you would have done the same thing if you wanted to hide what happened. Think of how you felt when

Yugi and his friends got sucked into Noa's world and how angry you were that they were discovering things about you that you didn't want known. You knew they wouldn't do anything with that knowledge to hurt you…" Kaiba snorted, "…Well, not too badly, but still it felt like you were being violated. Mai probably feels the same way. She knows you and Jonouchi, but how long has she known you? Two, three weeks? That's not enough time to trust a person with your dark deep secrets."

A smile graced Kaiba's face, a real one, which was extremely rare. It was one of a parent seeing their child doing something extraordinary and it made Mokuba feel warm inside but also a little bit uncomfortable.

"I need to know what happened with her there."

"I know. Tell her that. Tell her that you can wait until she's ready."

"And if she isn't ready soon?"

Mokuba smiled. " You can make her."

Kaiba returned the smile and finished tying the lace of his shoe. He stood up, arching his back to crack it into place. "I'll be back." He left his room to Mokuba, and walked down the stairs to the kitchen.

Sure enough, Mai was on one of the stools, reading the newspaper, the hand that wasn't flipping through the pages on her coffee mug.

"Mornin'," she muttered without looking up, taking another swig of her coffee. He poured himself a cup of coffee and sat down across from her. He took a swig of it to calm his nerves and found it very strong. It was perfect.

"I want to apologize for not telling you in advance that I would be watching the tape," he began and she looked up, taking another swig of her coffee. Her eyes looked tired and he wondered how much sleep she had gotten after the fiasco. "I didn't think and for that, I am sorry."

She was smirking. He probably just made an idiot of himself then. She took a sip of coffee and spoke. " I guess I should apologize for not being so forthcoming about the events that transpired there. I have illusions I would like to keep intact, as do you and Jonouchi. The tape…"

"The tape could revel those things?"

She nodded and slid off the stool to grab a peach from the fruit bowl. " I appreciate the fact that the both of you have been so open about yourselves to me but I'm not used to having people in my life that I can trust. Give me some time to get used to the idea."

It was unspoken that she would give the tape back or start talking about it. Kaiba wasn't happy with the fact there was no time limit but he supposed he could wait. He had other resources to use.

Mai took a bite of her peach and wrinkled her nose. She showed to him that it was moldy and she jumped up, throwing it in the garbage and sprinted for the bathroom.

Kaiba took another sip of his coffee and moved the newspapers from Mai's seat to his.

'''''''' '''''''' '''''''' '''''''' '''''''' '''''''' '''''''' '''''''' ''''''''

"Where were you?"

Jonouchi looked up at the fuming Shizuka, dropping his duffel bag and shutting the door behind him. "Why not at school?"

She was sitting on his couch in one of his over-sized sweatshirts, knees tucked under it that gave her a package-sort of look with a head on top. " I thought something might have happened to you. When I came by this morning, and you weren't there…" she trailed off and Jonouchi walked over to her to hug her. He kissed heron the forehead and took a seat next to her on the sofa.

"Sorry I didn't call you and tell you where I was. I was spending the night at Kaiba's."

"Kaiba?"

"Yeah," Jonouchi scratched his head. " He's not really that bad of a guy once you get to know him." Shizuka gave a look of disbelief. " I'm serious. He is starting to be a bit nicer to me now. It's really weird…"

"How did therapy go with him and Mai?"

Jonouchi sighed, lying his head on the pillow. "It was a disaster. Kaiba and Mai were both more reluctant to talk to her then I was."

"They have more to hide then you."

"Huh?"

"I mean, Kaiba obviously has had a traumatic childhood. Mai probably does as well for her to be as strong emotionally as she is."

"And you're saying I didn't?" Jonouchi took his head off the pillow to stare down his sister who was starting to get that fearful look in her eye, realizing she may say the wrong thing.

"No. I'm not. I'm just saying theirs were probably worse then yours…"

And yet again Shizuka messed up what she was going to say because he glared. "Of course. I can't compare to poor Kaiba who was orphaned and had to become a father to his little brother who got stuck with a psychopath father who made him into a corporate billionaire and ended all emotions in Kaiba to the point he wouldn't blink if he killed someone. Well, some of us aren't given such obviously tragic lives like that, Some of us just get beaten and have to survive without any great reward coming out of it."

"I'm sorry," she whispered after his tirade stopped.

"I'm sorry too, Shizuka. I'm sorry that you couldn't see the truth."

She got the pun and it stung deeper then she had expected. She hadn't wanted to hear her brother telling her how their father started to beat him and how mother wouldn't allow him to live with them. She just wanted to pretend that both had ended up okay when their parents separated.

"I'm sorry," she repeated and Jonouchi turned on the TV. It was another sitcom and they watched it in silence.

''''''''''''' ''''''''''''' ''''''''''''' ''''''''''''' ''''''''''''' '''''''''''''

The eraser scraped against the paper and Kaiba gritted his teeth, hoping the paper wouldn't tear under his onslaught. He pressed the ruler to where the eraser stubs were, and redrew his line. It connected to the others at a perfect ninety degrees and Kaiba took a long needed breath, sitting back in his chair.

He was drawing a floor plan of the school. He wasn't sure why he felt he had to draw one but he found it easier to indulge his urges than to suppress them. Names filled the square boxes of the people who had died in each room and he had drawn little skulls where the bombs had been placed. Dotted lines showed the journeys Jonouchi and Mai had made, ending in the auditorium just where they intersected. He couldn't help but focus on it. His obsessive nature wouldn't allow him to look at anything else. Sure, he may have promised he wouldn't ask her or bother her about the tape until she was ready to talk about what happened, but he had to know. He couldn't leave some information lying around if it could help him unscramble the mystery. What mystery he was solving was still unknown to him but he knew eventually the question his subconscious was telling him to answer would soon be clear.

He stared at the lines. Jonouchi's panicked run through the school made sense. In the huge floor plan of the school, which was dangling off his oversized desk, Jonouchi had stayed in one small area, dashing in between the rooms there. Mai's story was completely different and had no logic to it. If he drew the floor plan correctly, which he was positive he did, the room she was in was at the other end of the school. It wasn't just exaggeration. With the number of shooters and bombs that were planted through the school, some not outside but in the corridors of the hall, it was humanly impossible to get to one side of the building to another without getting killed.

He had sent for her medical files earlier in the week. It had been illegal to even ask for them but money could do a lot of things. When he had viewed them, he had noticed the lack of injuries on her when she and Jonouchi arrived at the hospital. She didn't have any scratches and none of the blood on her was her own. The only damage on her was the bruises along her stomach and ribs. The cryptic writing in the file didn't name the cause but Kaiba suspected it was from being shot and the bullets being stopped by the vest. It piqued him that she wouldn't talk about it so he could have his theory validated.

He shifted the floor plans off his desk and took out his copy of Time Magazine. He had found the yearbook pictures of all the students helpful and he scanned through them, making sure he had circled in red ink all the shooters that he knew of. Counting them quickly, he came to thirty-two circled and he growled. That was much more then the suspected amount that the magazine had reported.

He grabbed the phone and dialed the extension to his brother's phone. Not saying a word, he heard feet hitting the steps as his brother bounded up to the stairs to his at-home office.

"What do you need?"

"I need plane tickets and a press conference."

Mokuba looked at him confused. " You're not going to America, are you?"

Kaiba didn't answer. He just lowered his eyes in shame.

"Can't you just stop obsessing over it? Why do you need to go there?"

"I really don't know." Kaiba was being honest and he met his brother's eyes. Mokuba walked over to the desk and shifted the magazine to peak at the floor plans.

"What do you hope to find there, Nisama? Do you need any other explanation for the reason the kids did it besides they were fucked-up kids? Are you searching for redemption because you've already found it? Do you think that obsessing over it will change what happened?"

"Yes…to all those things," Kaiba mumbled, folding up the floor plan quickly. " I can't just sit here and know that I could be doing something."

"You just don't know what."

Kaiba nodded and looked up at his brother. More and more, he began to feel like he was the child, begging for permission from the adult, Mokuba. " Can you do it for me?"

Mokuba smiled. "I'll do it. I'll order five tickets."

"Five?"

Mokuba was already gone and Kaiba puzzled over the significance of five. It wouldn't get them a deal and he didn't think he knew five people. He sighed and flipped the switch for his computer, going back to his normal work.

''''''''''''''' ''''''''''''''' ''''''''''''''' ''''''''''''''' '''''''''''''''

"What do you think of Mai?"

It was the first thing that popped in Jonouchi's head as the sitcom Shizuka and him were watching ended and he tried to find a topic to end the standoff between them. He regretted the question as soon as he asked it from the interested look he saw on Shizuka's face. He had seen it before on Anzu when she talked about Atem or saw a matchmaking opportunity.

"She's nice enough. Sort of cold, has an angry undertone to her. Why'd you ask?"

"No particular reason. I just didn't get her sometimes."

Shizuka waited for him to speak, seeing he was trying to word it carefully.

"Being around her is a lot like being with Atem. You are talking to someone who is nice enough to you but yet is so far advanced from you that you feel inadequate in their presence…"

Shizuka didn't have the guts to point out that sounded very much like a crush.

"They always appear perfect. They don't doubt or fail. You notice people never notice you but them…all eyes are always on them like they are a magnet for attention. They attract without trying."

"I had the same impression of her at first too. I don't know her as well as you do but if she is anything like Atem, she is not unattainable. She has flaws but she burrows them deeper then anyone can possibly dig."

"I guess what I don't like about her is that she doesn't care. She doesn't apologize for lying. She didn't say sorry for hogging the attention at Yugi's funeral. She just shrugs and mentions that's the way life works. She can't be sorry for the things she isn't and can't apologize for the things she can't control."

"She does care about you though, Jonouchi. She sat at your bedside while you were in your coma, reading stories to you. Of course, she swore for me to never tell a soul, but…she did apologize oddly enough for saving you. She said she didn't have the right to do that."

Jonouchi stared at the coffee table in silence, mulling over what Shizuka just said. He did think it was weird that was what she apologized for. A mental note to ask about it when the topic could be broached was made.

"Hey, Jonouchi. Why haven't you had a girlfriend in awhile?"

"That's sort of random," Jonouchi sighed, running through his memories. " Yeah. It has been two years since my last one." He laughed nervously.

"Why is that, Jonouchi?"

"I don't know. I guess I didn't want to involve whoever I was with in my dueling and all the misadventures that came with it."

"Are you going to continue dueling?" Shizuka asked.

"Don't know."

"You should duel Mai."

"Why? She probably has the same problem of remembering I do."

Shizuka seemed to ignore what he was saying. " Mai could be involved in your dueling."

All the not-so-subtle clues Shizuka had interjected into the conversation suddenly jumped out at Jonouchi and he glared. " I don't like Mai in that way."

Shizuka gave a knowing smile.

''''''''''''''' ''''''''''''''' ''''''''''''''' ''''''''''''''' '''''''''''''''

Kaiba watched the plane fall to earth and skid across the runway before hitting a full stop. It filled him with a nostalgic feeling because he wished he had been the one flying today and not just a passenger. Maneuvering a plane through the skies made him feel alive, like he was so close to death if he performed one thing wrong. Being a passenger just made him sluggish and confused.

"Ready?" he asked the people behind him.

Jonouchi only scowled and Shizuka punched his arm, smiling brilliantly enough for both of them. Mokuba was standing with Mai who looked to be in a passionate with a bag handler from her arms wailing around and the anger that radiated off her. Mokuba was looking up at her in a mixture of respect and awe as she convinced the man to go back to the plane and find Mokuba's bag.

It looked to be a normal trip. But Kaiba knew better. It would be the trip to answer all his questions.

**Author's Note: **This isn't a complete chapter. This is just what I got done in the past two days. I have to keep to deadlines and I am horribly stressed out now between work so this is what I got. I'll put the rest of the chapter up on Friday or before then, keeping to my weekly updates. I plan on doing a walk tomorrow to raise money, read Harry Potter, then shop. I am working less next week so I can write more.

Enjoy. And sorry that it isn't up to standards.

Review


	8. Judith

**Ave Maria**

_It's not like you killed someone  
__It's not like you drove a hateful spear into his side  
__Praise the one who left you  
__Broken down and paralyzed  
__He did it all for you_

"You sure you don't want me to carry your bag?"

"Yes. For the thousandth time, I think I can carry my own bag. It's not that heavy."

Kaiba rolled his eyes at the fight that was being displayed behind him as he led his merry band of travelers up the stairs to their hotel room. The elevator had broken and the carts that held the luggage couldn't be dragged up the stairs so everyone was stuck carrying their own suitcases.

"But…."

"Jonouchi, you are barely able to drag your and Shizuka's suitcases. You don't need mine," Mai scolded and Kaiba heard the harsh stomping of heels as Mai bounded up a few more stairs, getting her pace even with his. " Sorry. He's annoying me. You can continue to brood."

He watched her snatch the key out of his hand before he could protest and rocket up the stairs. She was surprisingly agile despite having a huge duffel bag, which she could most likely fit her body in, and thin heels that looked like they were going to crack at any second. She was a floor above them and a door slammed, announcing that she had reached the seventh floor which was where their room was located.

"She's not someone to take up chivalric action," Kaiba stuck his head over the railing to tell the blonde who was a flight of stairs behind him.

Jonouchi looked up and flashed him the middle finger. Kaiba shrugged and continued walking up the stairs, carrying his and Mokuba's bags. He threw open the door to their floor and walked to the only door on their side of the hall. The door was propped open since Mai had stolen the key and he walked in, throwing his bags against the wall.

He had chosen the biggest room he could find in the local hotels that bordered Ann's Harbor, New Jersey. Despite its proximity to New York City, which was only a ferry away, the town was rather quaint and the selection was minimal. He had gotten a suite with three bedrooms, a bathroom, living area, and a private pool. Seeing that he had four other people who were going to be living with him for an undisclosed amount of time, he wanted plenty of space so he didn't try to kill them immediately for being too loud.

The key was set on the nightstand of the living area, a bunch of overstuffed floral couches that overlooked the glorious view of the metallic-colored ocean and the distant spikes of skyscrapers. A bouquet of flowers adorned the table and Kaiba ran his finger down the grimy brown center of a sunflower Fake and gritty, and Kaiba cursed the people for being so cheap as to not provide him real flowers.

Stomping rung out and Kaiba supposed that Jonouchi was nearing the top of the stairs with Shizuka and Mokuba. He wandered to the back of the living area where the doors leading to the bedrooms were and he went into the one that was open. Mai was kneeling by the drawers, folding her clothes and placing them by color and style. All her belongings were already scattered around the room atop her fake wooden-framed bed and the light blue carpet. The covers were messed up like she had already slept in the bed and Kaiba grimaced.

"I never knew you were that messy."

"I think best when things are in disorder," she responded, looking up at him. She was balancing on her heels, nearly sitting on them, and she leaned back, snatching the leg of her jeans and dragged them to the floor.

"It seems too peaceful here," he commented, moving some of her clothes closer to her so he could take a seat. " Everyone just moves around, going about their days, smiling to the neighbors."

"Don't forget the water. All the souvenir shops immortalize it on everything from decals for the car to flags that I have seen flying with the American flag flying at the same level," she added, folding a t-shirt.

"That too. It's just, I thought it would be…."

"Dark? Dreary? A horrible place that the devil resides within? The people here are not us. They don't have to live with what happened here everyday of their lives," Mai shut the drawer and took a seat next to him on the bed.

"They do have to live with it. I can't understand why they can still smile. The life of their town was destroyed. All the kids are dead. That has to affect something!"

"Not all. Anyhow it still affects it and I am sure you'll find out what the effect is, Kaiba-san," she whispered and Kaiba felt some hope from her words. He wasn't sure what it was that made him feel at peace. Maybe he was just scared he took time off from work, putting the company in the hands of his board members, whom he still did not trust, to find there were no answers. He was going to say something when he heard knocking on the door and he looked up.

"Hi. What're you doing in there?" Jonouchi said, poking his head in.

"I was just leaving," Kaiba announced, getting up off the bed. He followed Jonouchi out of the room and he shut Mai's door. Turning his glare to Jonouchi, he hissed. " Why did you interrupt me? I was trying to get information out of her."

"Is that what you were doing, Kaiba?" Jonouchi retorted and walked away from him. Kaiba looked at him confused and dashed after the blonde.

"What is that supposed to mean, mutt?"

Jonouchi spun around, partially out of habit for the fight that would inevitably occur when the name mutt was uttered in his presence. " I think you know what it means, Kaiba."

"I don't. Please enlighten me."

Jonouchi stared him down, considering whatever to tell the billionaire the truth. He decided against it and turned his back, walking away from Kaiba.

Kaiba grumbled and grabbed his bags from where he threw them. He dragged them to one of the rooms and tossed them onto the bed. " This is mine and Mokuba's room."

"I wanted that room!" Jonouchi yelled out.

Kaiba only gave him an evil grin in response as he deliberately went into his new room and unpacked his clothes.

'''''''''''''''''''''''''' '''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''' '''

Jonouchi was seriously wishing that he taken English class a little bit more seriously when he was in school. Maybe then, he would have a clue to what everyone around him was saying. Instead it just sounded like a splat of language coming from all directions, trying to hit him, and he had no way to avoid it.

He had felt that way when he was at the hospital but at least there, he had to be isolated and didn't mind it as much not being able to communicate with people. Now, he was in the middle of a beach town with fascinating things to do and people to see and he had no clue where to go or what to do.

All he knew that he was bored. After Kaiba had stolen the room he wanted, the room that was closest to the pool and kitchen, he had unpacked Shizuka's bags for her while she stared out at the view, and he left his suitcase in the corner for him to live out.

He didn't know Shizuka found so great about the view. The water looked poisonous because of its murkiness and the sand on the beaches was a dark color, soaking wet and appeared almost cement-like, with no fluff that normal grainy sand had. Skyscrapers hung in the backdrop and it just reminded Jonouchi of how much he hated humans. They were polluting the sky with metal, obstructing the view of clouds and sun.

Maybe his opinion on water and what made a spectacular sight was biased. Duelist Kingdom was the first time he had ever really seen the ocean despite living near a seaport. The water had been crystal clear and blue, screaming of vitality and beauty, and when Jonouchi had overlooked the water, all he could see for miles was more and more water. It made everything else seem so empty and small. He liked that feeling. Beautiful things were meant to put life in perspective, giving the impression that some things were more important then you. He remembered thinking when he had looked at the ocean the first time that Shizuka could never see what he saw and it spurred him to duel harder.

Claustrophobia was beginning to set in and he needed to get out of the hotel room. He couldn't sit still for as long as he was. He knew if he wanted to wander the town and do anything productive, he needed to find someone who knew English to be with him. A plan composed in his head and he ran through the minor glitches. Kaiba was out, doing some business in the car he had rented at the airport, as was Mokuba who was sitting in his room, using a laptop to surf the Internet. Shizuka was too enthralled with the view to notice him gone so he wouldn't have to take her and he didn't think Mai was up to anything special.

His plan was to go out with Mai, just to spend some time with her, under the excuse he needed someone who could speak English to go with him. He could see Kaiba was starting to realize what Jonouchi had already knew: Mai was beautiful, and Jonouchi would not stand a chance if Kaiba decided as well that he wanted to date her. Kaiba had money and class, all things Jonouchi didn't have. The only thing Jonouchi had that Kaiba lacked was normality.

He put on a clean t-shirt and jeans before he knocked on her door. He heard a muffled "come in" and he opened the door to find Mai holding a container of scotch tape in her teeth and was winding the strip she had around the heel and sole of one of her shoes. It must have finally broken and he watched her in amusement as she tried to get more tape without letting go of the shoe.

"Do you need help?"

She didn't nod but she really couldn't. He felt nervous and he gently pulled the scotch tape dispenser from the grip her mouth had on it. In her eyes, he saw a question, one he wasn't willing to answer to why he decided to do that instead of holding the shoe, and he pulled off a piece of tape, ignoring the saliva that was all over the dispenser, and placed it on her pinky, her only free finger that wasn't holding the shoe together.

She stuck it to the heel and pushed against it with her finger. The heel didn't budge and she deemed it satisfactory in staying to the sole of the shoe. She set it on the ground and slid her foot in it, placing all her weight onto it. The shoe promptly broke and she swore, tossing the shoes into her bag.

"Do you want to go shopping with me? I need a new pair of heels," she grabbed her pocketbook from the bed and slipped on some sandals.

He nodded, happy he didn't have to do any work. The elevators were running and it was an easy trip down to the lobby. Walking out the front door was an experience. He hadn't realized how hot it had gotten and the sunlight that wasn't obvious from the room was bright and equally suffocating along with the humidity that seemed to float in the air.

"Main Street has some shops. We'll go there first and work our way up to the classier shops."

He didn't argue. He just wanted to appease her. It wasn't like he had any money to spend. Which then occurred to him could be a problem. He considered asking her to stop and allowing him to run up to the hotel room to steal one of Kaiba's credit cards but he wasn't sure where they were and if Kaiba found out…he didn't want to think about what would happen.

Having not grown up with Shizuka or his mother and having not been horribly close to Anzu, he had not had the experience of shopping with a woman before. Sure, he had heard the horror stories from Yugi who always went along to be Anzu's bag carrier and from Honda who went with his own sister several times. But he never realized the physical exhaustion and inadequacy that came from it.

Mai would go into a store, pause in the doorway and just leave. After the first time Jonouchi asked why she did it, he stopped asking because he had a feeling he would be getting more dumb answers such as "the place smelled." The stores that Mai did spend time in were clothing shops where she would walk between the aisles and lightly place her hand on the garment, feeling it and looking it over for the price tag. Jonouchi had seen some of the prices and his first indication at seeing $174 dollar jeans with nothing special about them was to run and get far away.

Mai didn't buy anything at the stores and instead ended up buying a pair of wedges from a stand on the beach. They had cost her $10 and Jonouchi couldn't help but notice that her wallet was empty the minute she bought them. He didn't understand why they had wasted so much time in the fancy designer shops if she couldn't afford anything. When he asked her that, she laughed at him.

"I can dream about spending that much money and not noticing that it is gone," she smiled at him and as the sight of a wave coming in; she sprinted off the boardwalk and onto the beach. He watched her from above as she ran towards the ocean, allowing the waves to crash at her feet. The spray flung itself around her and the air flew her curly locks in every direction, tangling against her face. She was laughing and her loose black pants were sticking to her skin as she ventured out, leaving imprints in the newly wet sand.

"That was fun," she yelled and Jonouchi smiled, taking the normal way off the boardwalk, which was the stairs. She looked messed-up with her hair not perfect and her clothing matted and soaking wet, but it was beautiful. He remembered how he had thought how beautiful she looked on the cover of Time, covered in blood and grime. It made him realize he liked her better when she was being real and not putting on the Barbie Doll persona.

"I'm jealous of you and Kaiba," she told him as she took a seat next to him on the park bench, rolling up the end of her pants that were saturated with sand. " You both get to live near the ocean."

"I never saw the ocean before I met Yugi,."

"Seriously?" she turned to him and he blushed. " That sort of makes sense. Do you live on the other side of town?"

He nodded, praying she wouldn't ask where he lived on the other side of town. Although she wasn't from Domino City, she knew oddly most of the landscape. He didn't want to tell her that he lived in the slums.

"And I assume Kaiba was too busy working to even notice that there was an ocean except for the fact it separates one continent from another?"

"Kaiba never sees things for what they are." Jonouchi didn't want the conversation to be about Kaiba anymore and so he switched the subject. " Do you live near the ocean?"

"When I was really little I did, " she said. She was looking at the ocean with a glassy stare, like her mind was transported to the other side of the ocean where New York City was. "We lived on this cliff that overlooked the ocean. I used to, every night, sit by the bay window and pray…"

"I didn't know you were religious," Jonouchi interrupted.

"I'm not. I stopped believing in God a long time ago. Anyhow, the moon would shine upon the ocean and it would light it up like a pathway. It would look as solid as concrete on a sidewalk and I used to think it was a pathway to God, which technically it was because if I tried to walk upon it, I'd be dead. It was probably the most beautiful thing I have ever seen in my life and it's sad because I don't have any pictures of it."

"I'll get you a picture of it," Jonouchi mumbled without thinking.

"Eh?" She looked at it confused and Jonouchi realized what he had just said.

"I'll get a camera and take a picture of it for you.," he repeated.

"You don't have to."

"Nah. Want to. Besides it's the least I can do for you," He expected her to protest but she looked pleased that he was willing to do something for her. She was smiling warmly at him and he felt his stomach drop.

"Do you want to get something to eat?" he asked.

She nodded, giving him her hand so he could pull her up. "There's a place nearby that is cheap enough for us poor people," she told him as they scampered up the bank and onto the boardwalk.

He was hoping it was actually cheap. He had only twenty bucks on him and he didn't want to look like a fool, asking for money from her if the tab went over. He really should have not suggested it. He was stuck picking up the bill, if he remembered right from a rant Shizuka had made about Honda after a particularly peculiar night, since he was the one who invited her. He was going into panic mood and his heart felt like it was trying to skydive out of his chest. The bright lights of the bar they were walking into made him dizzy and feel ill, and suddenly Mai grabbed his hand. He felt better instantly.

All the tables were occupied by biker gang people, dressed in tight black leather that did not suit the immaculate size of their guts, chugging down beer and alcoholic beverages despite it not being anywhere near time for dinner or social hour. Mai led him to the bar where a few stools were free at the end, and ordered for both of them. He trusted her choice in food and instead took in the surroundings.

The room was dark and smoky with sudden glimpses of neon lights poking through the haze. The people sitting around them were all staring at Mai, the whites of their eyes shining like rabid animals. Jonouchi scooted a tad closer to Mai to protect her and she smiled at the bartender as he brought them their fries and cokes.

"Ignore them. They're not used to seeing girls," she told him as she took a sip of her soda.

He didn't know how she could say that. The eyes on them made the hairs at the back of his neck lift up and he dipped a fry in ketchup, stuffing it into his mouth and chewing, hoping it would calm him. The grease and the salt did just that.

Jonouchi knew he should make conversation but he couldn't find a suitable topic. He knew she had a past and she didn't like talking about it. Those sorts of questions were the only things he could think to talk about. It wasn't like they shared friends or any interests outside of dueling, which again was a taboo topic because it came back around to how they met.

"So you're the girl who…."Jonouchi looked behind him at the person the smooth voice was coming from.

Mai interrupted the guy. " I'm that girl. What do you want?"

"I thought you would look a little less…weak…" his voice was a purr and Jonouchi could smell the alcohol on his breath. "You…" he reached out his hand, fingertips lightly grazing Mai's bare shoulder. Jonouchi wasn't sure what came over him or what either of them was saying but before he realized it, he had grabbed the guy's wrist and yanked his hand away.

"Stay away from her," he growled.

The drunken guy was shorter by a few inches then him as well as Mai and the two males stared each other down, both understanding despite the language barrier that a fight was brewing. Mai stepped in before it could start.

"It's okay. Thank you," she whispered into his ear and Jonouchi backed down, taking his seat. She then turned to the drunk. "Leave me alone. I don't like you or want you."

The drunk didn't seem to comprehend her words but eventually gave up and returned to nursing his beer. Mai exhaled and returned to sitting on the stool.

"This happens every time I go to bars. They…" Mai paused. " You ate all the fries!"

Jonouchi didn't realize he had. Eating was a nervous habit and he probably started stuffing his mouth. There was one left, soaked in ketchup and soggy, and he gave a sheepish look, feeling incredibly guilty, and pushed the plate over to her. "Sorry bout' that."

"It's alright. I didn't like them much anyone. You can have the last one."

Jonouchi took her up on the offer and ate the last fry, slathered in salt. It made him thirsty and he had run out of his soda and Mai's was finished. There was a drink next to her soda and he pulled it to him, taking a sip. It wasn't the best tasting thing in the world but it quenched his thirst a bit.

''''"''''''"'''' ''''"''''''"'''' ''''"''''''"'''' ''''"''''''"''''

The door slammed shut and Kaiba looked up from the couch, setting his laptop on the table. Mai had kicked the door shut, both hands tied up with supporting Jonouchi who was leaning on her, looking a tad woozy and injured from the red blotches along his cheek and around his eyes which would soon be forming bruises.

Kaiba stood up and helped her get Jonouchi to his room. No one was in there and they got him set in bed before returning to the living room. Mai collapsed on the couch, leaning her head back, sighing.

"Bad night?" Kaiba asked.

"Some guys sent me free drinks and Jonouchi was nervous so he was eating and drinking whatever was in front of him. He didn't drink much but it was enough to get him confrontational and when another guy hit on me, they got in a fistfight. It was kind of flattering to watch someone take a black eye for you," she smiled. "Anyway, as soon as the fight broke up, I got him out of there. "

"Stupid Mutt," he mumbled and Mai chuckled, slipping off her shoes so she could then sit on her feet.

"It really wasn't his fault. I didn't tell him they were there and he just assumed."

"Why didn't you tell him?"

" I don't like to draw attention to the fact I don't drink."

Kaiba wasn't surprised by her answer. She looked like she could be a party girl but her personality was so controlled and upright that having her relaxed would be a frightening sight to watch. He remembered the only time he had gotten drunk. It was at his first Kaiba Corp. party as the CEO and he had been so nervous. In an attempt to socialize, he drank whatever his guests were having, champagne, and it was only luck that no one found out that the 13-year CEO was not entertaining future business partners in the lounge but was puking in the handicapped stall of the bathroom.

"Is it about staying in control?" Kaiba asked.

"Yeah. I don't have anyone to fall back on if I mess up. Not being in control could have resulted in me dying or being raped, or maybe simply losing my job. I never have had normal work hours so I couldn't metabolize the alcohol before I went to work."

He noticed that despite how closed she was about herself, she did drop a lot of hints. Her words gave him the impression she had been living alone for much longer then the six years of adulthood. It made his curiosity about her life stronger and he made a note to talk to Mokuba later.

"Where's Shizuka?" Mai asked.

" She went to get some ice for the refrigerator. It's not keeping the drinks cold enough."

"Alright. I'm going to be in my room. Night." She smiled at him and stood up, scooping up her shoes to carry them to her room. As soon as she got in the room and the door closed, Kaiba said his good night.

He picked up his laptop and put the finishing touches on his email to the board of directors before packing it up and going back into his bedroom. Mokuba was sitting on the couch, surfing through the pay-per-view movies, and he stood up the minute his brother walked into the room.

"Did you find out?"

"I feel kind of guilty doing this, Niisan," Mokuba confessed, rummaging through the papers he had placed on the nightstand that was between the couch and the king-sized bed.

"So do I but if we are going to fabricate that we are getting counseling, it should at least be partly real."

"Is that really why you are researching her?"

Kaiba's head shot up, shocked at his brother's question. " Of course, it is."

"The only things you ever research are the businesses you are planning to take over and who you will have to be fighting off for it." Mokuba found the papers and flopped down on the bed. "But…."

"Stop using the analogy," Kaiba ordered. " Mai is not a business nor is Jonouchi competition to me."

"You didn't deny the taking over part…." Mokuba pointed out.

"So?"

"You want her."

Mokuba's statement hit him hard. He remembered dueling Yugi at the Battle City Finals. Everything had been perfect and fate was on his side. Then something happened and shattered the illusion and the pretenses he had built up. It was that same feeling. Every thing he had thought just spiraled out of his grasp and he was trying to grab the pieces that were dangling just out of reach, trying to make sense of what just happened.

"I don't know what I want, Mokuba," he responded, not bothering to deny it. He didn't feel like lying to himself anymore.

"Alright." Mokuba smiled at his brother and reached over to ruffle his hair, like so many times when their roles were reversed. " This is what I have on her. She was born into a wealthy family that had several houses along the waterfront around the country. Her parents were very busy people and were probably never home so she grew up with nannies. Her mother was an award-winning director while her father was a known architect. When she was six, their names fall off the records and all the houses were sold to the state because no one could figure out if they were dead and if so, where the wills were. Mai's name falls off the records until she is ten and she wins her first dueling competition. Then it shows up occasionally every few months to announce her winnings."

Kaiba nodded. " Have her parents ever been found?"

"Nope. It's just like they disappeared off the face of the earth. But I did notice that there is a small chunk of money, around seven million, that didn't get accounted for when the state took it. My theory is that they couldn't deal with the high-pressured lives and just split, going to somewhere where no one knew them."

"Those people were bastards. How could they leave their daughter homeless and without any money?" Kaiba raged.

"I know."

"And how did she manage to survive for four years until she started getting tournament money? How did she survive for 12 years before she could hold down a real job?" Kaiba continued.

"I know."

"Find it out for me!"

Mokuba nodded. He found it interesting how angry his brother seemed about hearing Mai's past. Maybe his theory wasn't too far off about his brother having something for the older blonde.

"Are you going to do the visit tomorrow?" Mokuba asked.

Kaiba nodded, lying on his stomach as he propped his laptop against a pillow and began to type away furiously.

''''"''''''"'''' ''''"''''''"'''' ''''"''''''"'''' ''''"''''''"''''

People are useless. That was the conclusion Kaiba came to as he pulled the rental car back into the hotel's parking lot, put it in park, and then just sat there, eyes closed.

It had been a rough day for him. He had made the idiotic decision to drive around town and visit the parents of some of the kids who had died and some of the shooter's parents. He wasn't sure why he wanted to besides the fact it may have brought him some answers. However, he found none.

He had forgotten how raw emotions could be. Even after a month, the minute he showed on one family's doorstep, the parents were bawling and showing him pictures of their daughter and son. They questioned him to what happened in there because the police didn't tell them much and they never found the bodies. Kaiba answered as honestly as he could and they cried some more when he told them they were blown up, escaping. They asked him if Yugi was a friend, and Kaiba had to think about it. He told them yes, though he wasn't a friend to Yugi, and they said that their son idolized Yugi. It was all sweet and sugary, making Kaiba both want to cry with them and throw up in the front lawn.

The shooter's families were more interesting. Half of them were still denying their sons were a part of it and others were just sitting around, doing nothing, in so much pain that their son didn't tell them how he felt and then killed a whole bunch of people. One father, from a very slimy area of town judging from the falling down house, tried to steal his car.

But the people he met were not what tired him out as much as the drive back to the hotel. He passed so many parks on the way, and not a single kid was there. He passed the local swimming pool and only toddlers were in there with their mothers. It was a beautiful, hot day out and no was around to enjoy it. It hit Kaiba then how much the town had lost. There were very few kids left and it made him feel so sad.

Kaiba sighed, rearranging his features to put on his collected mask, and focused on the task. He had learned nothing new about why the kids did it and it pissed him off.

"Kaiba…. Kaiba-kun!" he heard someone yelling and he looked across the parking lot. Shizuka was bouncing down the stairs, followed by Mai who did not share the same energy.

"Can we borrow your car? Mai needs to drive me some place," she asked.

He didn't bother asking where they were going although most of the town was associable by walking. He got out of the car and tossed the keys to Mai who caught them one-handed.

"Thank you," Shizuka chirped and he waved good-bye to them as the car pulled out.

He wondered why Mai looked like she was about to die.

The hotel room was cool from the air conditioning and Kaiba could hear the snores from Jonouchi's room as the mutt slept his way through the afternoon. He sat on the couch, bored, feeling unfilled because he didn't have any answers and then it hit him. He looked to Mai's room. Her door was slightly open and he could still hear Jonouchi sleeping. He walked into her room and rummaged through her bag.

Surely enough, as he had thought, she didn't leave any of her belongings back at the mansion, and he clutched the tape to his chest.

''''"''''''"'''' ''''"''''''"'''' ''''"''''''"'''' ''''"''''''"''''

"And this is the place that Kaiba killed five of the gunmen."

The informal monotonic s speech by Mai made her uncomfortable as she was given a tour of the school. They were standing outdoors on the brownish charred grass, looking up at the broken windows and loose bricks that dangled from the walls. She weaved around the roots of a shrubbery and continued to follow Mai.

It had been Shizuka's idea to see the school. She had thought it would be a good way to understand what Jonouchi was feeling and how she could help him. Mai had been the unwilling victim who had to drive her there and Shizuka had believed that Mai would have sulked the entire time they were there.

Instead, the minute Mai stepped out the door; she was very guide-like, face a blank sheet and became a walking book of knowledge. The two girls were looking for a place that wasn't too blown up that they could enter the school without getting severely hurt.

Shizuka had to wonder why the school wasn't blockaded off. It was seriously dangerous. Sharp pieces of glass littered the ground along with bricks and other material that was used to build the school were scattered about, making an almost jungle gym that surrounded the main structure of the school.

Mai pointed to where Jonouchi and her had met up. Shizuka didn't listen. She was annoyed at the mask Mai had on. To be truthful, she was sick of all the masks Kaiba, Mai, and her brother wore. They acted like what happened to them that didn't bother them. Jonouchi and Kaiba had only cried once or twice over it and Mai seemed to be completely unfazed, not crying or doing much of anything grieving related. Mai's voice wasn't even cracking as she listed off who died in which room and how they died.

"Does any of this matter to you?" Shizuka heard herself ask.

Mai turned around. "What?"

"Doesn't it make you want to cry? Doesn't it make you angry?"

"No."

"Do you feel anything?"

Mai smiled. It wasn't a pretty one and she spun around, jumping over a large chunk of plaster. " Nope. I didn't know them. It's hard to miss things you didn't know exist."

Shizuka was instantly reminded of her first encounter with Mai. She was cold then too and she remembered the temper the blonde had. The girl had a stare that alone could kill a man.

It sort of saddened her that she was seeing the same girl that she had met a month earlier. Kaiba and her brother had made progress but she was stagnant. She didn't like the girl she saw in front of her. She wanted to however. She knew her brother liked her and had spent the only night bemoaning how much he had messed up on their date. She wanted to see what her brother saw. She didn't see anything redeemable besides the saving of her brother's life.

Mai must have found a way in because when she left the sanctuary of her thoughts, she saw that she was in the hallway. It was slathered in blood and in ash, and she shivered as she followed Mai down the hallway. Mai didn't even pause or grimace.

"This is the place where your boyfriend Honda was killed," she pointed to an open hole in the wall. Shizuka could see the gray sky with heavy clouds that threatened to send down rain.

"He wasn't my boyfriend," she told her.

"Oh. I got the impression he was. Were the two of you close?" Mai was sitting on the windowsill in the center of a chalk outline. Shizuka didn't need to be told that the person died trying to escape.

"We were."

"Tell me, Shizuka. Did you cry for him?"

Shizuka's mouth opened to respond but no words would come out. She was flabbergasted. " You are a sick and cruel person, you know that.," she yelled when she found her voice and stormed down the hallway.

"Wouldn't do that. Don't know what's out there," Mai called out and Shizuka spun around reluctantly. "Why does the question bother you? Have you shed a tear for your Honda-kun?"

Shizuka didn't want to answer the question.

"You forgot him. Your brother was alive and needing someone. It's easy to forget when there are people who depend on us for strength. It's okay to not feel sad or mad because we have something else, something real, to focus our attention on. It's not okay though to scrutinize and criticize the way I deal with things when you have done it yourself."

Shizuka knew she was right deep down but she wasn't going to give the blonde the satisfaction of yet again finding the problem. Honda was important to her but his death wasn't affecting her. In her mind, he was just back in Domino, several hours from her home where she went to school, and some weekend would roll around and he'd call her and they'd do something.

She didn't realize she was crying until she felt the blonde hug her. The t-shirt was soft cotton, well worn, and it was good to cry into.

''''"''''''"'''' ''''"''''''"'''' ''''"''''''"'''' ''''"''''''"''''

The video was cued to where it had left off. Mai was crouched on the ground, much like a tiger ready to pounce, staring at the body of the guy she had just killed. A hatchet stuck out of his forehead, blade dripping with blood tipped towards his eyes. It chilled Kaiba to the bone to see the smile that lit up her face, so wrongly cheerful and she stood up, taking a hold of the handle of the hatchet. She paused, debating over taking it out or not, and finally she decided to let the sharp instrument rest in the guy's brains.

She walked over to Jonouchi who was staring at her in fear. He was glued to where he stood and she stopped a few inches from him. " I am not going to kill you, Jonouchi," she told him. " Stop cowering and let's get out of here."

Jonouchi took her offered hand and she pulled him to his feet. "Who are you?"

Kaiba noticed that Mai almost looked hurt by his statement but the look swiftly disappeared. "Someone who has every intention of saving your life," she answered. " Come." She walked out the door and Jonouchi jogged to keep up.

Mai led through a goose chase through the school, going to every entrance and peering out the window and around the door to see if there were bombs stationed. Jonouchi hung back, looking lost and confused. Shock had set in for him and it was only adrenaline that was keeping him moving and semi-functioning.

Kaiba found it interesting how they found no one in the halls at this time. There was no shooting, only a profound silence with only the noise of the motors in the air conditioning vents in the ceiling filling it. The silence was making Jonouchi jumpy because of the anticipation but Mai seemed to enjoy the calm. She hadn't freaked out yet which surprised him because she was being constantly shot out and had killed far too many people.

"Are you sure there is an entrance that isn't blocked?" Jonouchi asked, hearing a distant clap of noise.

"Yeah. The gunmen would need somewhere to escape." Mai ran to the doorway and looked outside. From the angle the camera gave, Kaiba could make out some blue and red lights swirling around. It appeared to be the police from the noise the sirens suddenly made. Jonouchi jumped.

"We need to find where the gunmen are. That will be where the unblocked entrance is. Most likely, they'll make a run for it now that the SWAT and police have shown. As soon as all they get out of the building, they have no reason to not detonate all the bombs instead of allowing them to blow on their own," Mai told him.

"I don't want to die," Jonouchi whispered.

"Don't worry. I'll protect you," Mai smiled at him and motioned for him to stay still while she ran into one of the classrooms. She emerged with three pistols and Kaiba watched her flick the safety off them. She handed one to Jonouchi and palmed the other two, keeping them tight to her side.

"I don't know…."

"Point and Shoot. Aim for the head or the leg. Chest is protected. All else fails, shoot randomly and hide behind something," Mai explained, interrupting him. " Come."

"What if I don't want to go with you?" Jonouchi challenged.

Kaiba rolled his eyes. It was just like Jonouchi to try to defy authority.

"I'm not forcing you. But you will be killed if you don't trust me. I know what I am doing."

"Oh yeah. You come across fire fights all the time," Jonouchi responded, obviously not in enough shock to argue.

"Maybe I have."

Jonouchi didn't know how to respond to that and she continued. " Your best option is to stay with me. You don't know if there are other people out there alive. You have neither plan nor ability to shoot or kill, which you will have to do if you want to get out of here alive. Do you want to die, Jonouchi?"

"No. But going in there is suicide."

"I know," Mai dove, body slamming into Jonouchi to knock him behind the curve of a wall, out of the camera's eye, as gunfire rang out from down the hall. "Stay put. I'm going to take them on. Be right back."

Mai scrambled from behind the cover of the wall, back onto the camera, guns drawn, slinking closer to where she heard the shooting. She followed the voices she could hear and found three guys clothed in black, standing around the bodies of what looked to be, ten-year olds from the flowery dresses they had on and the rolled up socks. She went behind the door and kneeled, snippering them off one by one. It was much too easy, Kaiba thought, and Mai jogged back to where she left Jonouchi.

He was no longer there. Mai swore and went down the opposite hallway, using the red marks on the floor to guide her. His shoes had blood on them and for that, she was thankful.

Kaiba watched her go to the end of the hallway and open the single door that was there. She stepped back and Kaiba waited in anticipation for the camera to shift to the one in that room.

A girl was throwing an axe around, trying to connect it with Jonouchi who was backing away slowly, scared half to death. She didn't look like a shooter since she wasn't in black and was female. Kaiba immediately figured out she was one of the few students that survived initially. She must have been frightened and assumed Jonouchi was going to kill her, so she was going to kill him first.

Kaiba watched Mai level the gun at the girl, waiting for Jonouchi to get far enough for her to not spoke him or accidentally kill him. Jonouchi jumped back and slipped, going down instantly with a loud cracking noise. The girl swung the axe down and he rolled, avoiding most of the blade but it sliced into his side. He screamed as the blood oozed onto his shirt, and she un-lodged the head, and again raised the axe above her head to strike. Mai shot the gun twice, the first bullet hitting her arm and the ax fell, falling on Jonouchi's ankle, which he began to scream even louder, and the second bullet hit her neck, killing her the rest of the way.

Mai rushed over to him, throwing the ax at the wall so she could examine his leg. It was bleeding from where the head of the axe had nicked it but otherwise looked all right. His side was in worse shape with blood pouring out and Mai peeled off her tank top, stretching to grab the axe and she used the sharp blade to cut it into one thin strip of fabric, an almost impossible feat Kaiba felt.

"Can you sit up?" she asked him and she helped him lift up his chest. He was grimacing in pain and she quickly wrapped the make-shirt bandage tightly around his stomach and ribs and tied it at the side. She pulled down his shirt and stood up.

"You need to stand," she told him and she dragged him to his feet. His ankle gave out the second he put weight on it and she swore. " Lean on me."

Kaiba noticed what Mai hadn't seen. Jonouchi's eyes were dilating and beginning to lose their brightness. He was going to pass out soon.

"What do you do next, Mai," he wondered, pausing the tape to grab a soda.

''''''''''' ''''''''''' ''''''''''' ''''''''''' ''''''''''' '''''''''''

The blonde hair would turn a golden ethereal color when the sunlight hit it and Mai lazily opened her eyes. Shizuka was sitting next to her on the pavement, in the middle of what once was the school's driveway. They were taking a short break before they got back in the car and drove the ten miles back to the hotel.

"Why did you stop believing in God?" Shizuka asked, breaking the silence that they had held since she had broken down and cried.

"I realized he wasn't going to save me," Mai answered, eyes squinted from the bright light. She reached for her purse and rummaged around for her sunglasses.

"From what?"

"Someone like you who was born surrounded by people can never understand what it is like to be alone. It never occurs to people what life is like for a young child who is forced with all the responsibility of an adult but none of the resources. He couldn't offer me salvation from the drudgery of my life so I discarded him." Mai found the sunglasses and put them on, now capable of looking at Shizuka who was right in the sun's path. The red highlights in her hair shone and the bridge of her nose was beginning to freckle.

"I guess I don't know. I don't know what you went through, I don't think any of us can except for Kaiba," Shizuka acknowledged. Mai nodded her agreement and exhaled, letting the sun warm her cold skin.

"I know it makes you uncomfortable to talk about God…" Mai snorted. "…But when you were there, did you hear any voices telling you what to do or did you pray?"

"Why do you want to know?" It seemed to be a question Mai asked a lot and Shizuka had a ready answer.

"I've been thinking of what I would have done if I had been there. I was invited, you know, but I ate something the night before and I was too ill to go on the plane with Jou that day."

"Ah, the miracles of fate," Mai said sarcastically. " If you have gone, you'd been killed."

"Why's that?"

"You wouldn't have been allowed to watch the duels so you would have been with your Honda and Anzu. You would have been burned alive."

To hear that wasn't nearly as reassuring as Shizuka thought it would be.

"No. I didn't hear any voices. I didn't pray. I just reacted and my instincts were right. I didn't die."

Shizuka wasn't sure why the words Mai said rattled around her brain and made her uncomfortable. "Why did you save Jou?"

"We've been through this." A cloud passed in front of the sun and the sky and space they sat in darkened.

"I know. I am hoping you may give me a different answer."

"And if I don't?"

Shizuka looked at the blonde. She looked so old and young at the same time, stubborn snarl of a child, and the wise eyes of an adult who had seen far too much and didn't talk to protect herself. " It wasn't chance or fate that brought you to save his life. Jonouchi told me about the tapes. It was premeditation. No one without an exact purpose would have walked around the school with guns being fired every which way unless they had a reason."

"What if I told you my reason for walking around had nothing to do with your brother?" Mai responded.

"It did "

"You don't know that, Shizuka."

"I know it did!"

Mai sighed. " Wish what you will."

"Even if it wasn't, why did you save him? You could have saved his life then just abandon him."

Mai didn't answer for some time. She just stared off into the sky, waiting for the sun to peak its nose out from behind the clouds.

"Have you ever met someone in your life that you thought would be perfect for you? Not in a sexual, loving manner or a best friend way, but someone who you could have a connection with. But you know deep down there's too much distance between you and something that beautiful is not meant to exist. I saw the bridge that could connect our two separate worlds and I decided to take it. "

"Do you have a crush on my brother, Mai?" Shizuka whispered.

"No,"

Jonouchi wasn't going to be too happy to hear that. " Why did he think he was perfect for you? What was he perfect for?"

"Friend, lover…I thought he would work for either. He just seemed carefree and happy. I was jealous. He had friends and he could fail and people would still like him. He was noble…trying to win the money for your surgery and he was just everything I wish I was…"

"…But not?" Shizuka interrupted.

Mai nodded.

"What changed?"

Mai sighed, slipping off her sunglasses so that when she looked Shizuka in the eye, Shizuka could read every expression that passed the violet eyes. " He's a good kid, and that's the problem. He's too young. He doesn't have the life experience that I have. It could work. I mean, he's cute and nice, though at times immature…. but I don't think if we were to have a relationship, it would be healthy."

"And it would be with Kaiba? Shizuka blurted out.

Mai looked at her strangely. "Who said anything about Kaiba?"

Shizuka kept quiet. " Let's go home."

Mai agreed by standing up and taking the keys from around her neck.

''''''''''' ''''''''''' ''''''''''' ''''''''''' ''''''''''' '''''''''''

Kaiba remembered the first time he had looked at the photo of Mai on the cover of Time Magazine. He thought she looked like an Amazon Warrior. The image she was presenting on the TV screen cemented that idea into his head.

Before passing out, she had convinced Jonouchi to ride piggyback, and she was stuck carrying his dead weight on her back. Both hands were occupied, holding guns and she was biting a knife for easy access in case she needed it. She had gotten fortunate that Jonouchi was lucid enough to keep his legs and arms tight around her waist and neck, but at any minute that could go and he'd slip off her.

She was marching through the hallway, towards the sound of guns. Kaiba remembered the floor plan saying it was the gym and it was all off by its lonesome, having only one hallway to go through. The students there were the last ones to die. They had hid in the locker rooms and forgot to lock the doors.

Mai paused outside the gym where loud laughing could be heard and she shifted Jonouchi's weight so he was higher up on her back. The audio on the tape picked up the loud sirens and the sound of people walking around outside could be heard. It was all going to be ending soon and Mai steadied her guns.

She stood on her tiptoes to look into the glass windows and she spotted directly across from the front door, another door that led to a hallway with windows. Kaiba sensed the logic streaming through her mind of bombs not being near the windows and he watched her throw open the doors to the gym and start running.

He didn't think she would survive it. Her speed was incredibly slow from carrying a 62 kg boy and with all the bullets whizzing around, it wouldn't have been a surprise if she got hit. She was shooting them off in both directions, aiming at her shooters, and it was only pure luck that everyone was occupied with not getting hit, and Mai hit the door handle hard, shutting it behind her.

The camera fed changed and it almost looked like a video game as Mai set Jonouchi down lightly, gave a quick glance at the door, and slid open the window. It went easily and Mai grabbed Jonouchi, dragging him to the windowsill. She looked to be trying to do it with some grace and not hurt him, but the shooters showed up, and she pulled him, sending both of them falling into the brush, landing on their backs.

Kaiba chuckled as the image changed to a camera that was positioned outside to look for intruders. Jonouchi was unconscious and would never get to know that he had landed on Mai, and Kaiba watched Mai scoot him off her, and drag him away from the building, keeping low to avoid the shots out the window at them.

They were out of the bushes and Mai hoisted Jonouchi against her shoulder, walking out into the parking lot. It was like the end of the race. Because of the wide view of the camera, Kaiba could see the crowd of reporters and emergency personal crowded on the other side of the street When she had gotten half way across the parking lot, the school blew up and the photo that Mai was known for was taken…

Kaiba stopped the tape and rewound it to the place he had started at. It had shocked him to see her disregard for danger and to know that she was the only person that didn't get injured was remarkable. The image in his mind of a warrior was replaced with a goddess because no thing except a god could be that fortunate to survive what she did.

But he was left still with the question of why she did what she did. He could care less about Jonouchi. Why did she keep putting herself in the killer's path when she could have taken the simpler path and have been safe?

It was like she wanted to die. That revelation came to Kaiba and he couldn't dismiss the idea. It fit too perfectly.

''''''''''' ''''''''''' ''''''''''' ''''''''''' ''''''''''' '''''''''''

Nostalgia led her to the beach. Too many nights when she was little were spent sitting in front of the window, watching the water churn itself on top of itself and then end with a soft caress to the shore to only begin again. It used to calm her and help her sleep. She was hoping it would tonight.

So far it wasn't. She had walked up and down the beach barefoot, feeling the sand squish between her toes. The ocean roared around her and she saw the occasional crab scour by. She figured she couldn't find any peace was because the moon wasn't out, still obstructed by clouds, and the moon was the missing component to her childhood fantasy.

She had been alone so when she saw a shadow walking towards her from near the beach of their hotel, she got a little bit nervous. She was hoping it was one of the guys and to her surprise, it turned out to be Kaiba.

"What are you doing out here?" she asked him as he neared her,

Kaiba shrugged. He was dressed casually in jeans and a black t-shirt. Mai didn't realize he owned anything that normal.

"Did you come out here to see me?"

Kaiba gave her a strange look. " Why would I come down to see you?"

"You don't seem the type to do something for no reason. You had a purpose coming down here."

"Maybe I just want to view the scenery?" Kaiba suggested, walking aside her.

"You never stop and admire your surroundings."

Kaiba raised an eyebrow. It was true. He had a huge mansion and he only used six rooms in it. He didn't really notice any other part of the house except when there was company and the maids reminded him there were free rooms there.

"Jonouchi told me you used to live by the ocean. Which house was that?" Kaiba asked. He had acquired more paperwork documenting Mai's history in his e-mail. It seemed her family had owned six homes and sold two when they were still around, buying new ones.

"All of them had some body of water next to them but that was the one in South Carolina. And just so you realize, Kaiba, I didn't tell Jonouchi that I had more then one house."

Kaiba realized he was caught and thought he should probably confess. " I did some research on you."

"And…" Mai stopped walking and turned to him.

"And what?"

She smirked at him, stepping into his personal space. It made him uneasy. " Are you going to tell me also that you watched the video tape that I specifically asked you not to, stealing it out of my bag then returning it?"

"I did that too." He admitted. " How did you know?"

"I didn't. You covered your tracks well. You avoided me all day since I got back with Shizuka."

Kaiba mentally yelled at himself. He forgot to act normal. " Should I be apologizing?" He didn't think he would ever be asking such a weird question before. Normally he would apologize and if they didn't like it, tough. But exchanges with her were different like a fencing match where the opponents only circled each other, both threatening to attack but neither ever doing just that.

"No. I wouldn't have brought it to America with me and hid it in such a obvious place if I didn't want you would watch it." She backed away and continued walking. He caught up with her and grabbed her arm, pulling her to face him.

"Did you want to die?" were the first words that came out of his mind. He had wanted to ease in the subject but sometimes the direct approach was more effective.

"Have you ever wanted to die, Kaiba-kun?" she responded. She was gazing up at him, and he could see his own face reflected in the glassy surface.

He wanted to say no. It was a barbaric thing to want. Life was precious, shouldn't end life…. but that would be lying to both her and himself if he said that.

"Yeah. The first few weeks with Gozaburo were horrible. He was beating me frequently; I was exhausted from schoolwork. Mokuba was crying and wetting the bed at night. I was in a strange place and nothing was going right. I wanted to end it there. I didn't know if I would survive."

"But you didn't. Why?"

He felt that she already knew the answer but he decided to go along with her rhetorical question. " I couldn't leave Mokuba alone to deal with that monster. I promised I would take care of him and I could only do it while I was living."

"I have no one to live for, Kaiba-kun. I don't have family or friends. I was on my own at six and I didn't have the advantage of my parents dying to get me placed anywhere else but the streets. I have worked all my life, demeaning myself, destroying myself to survive. For what? A happier future…I don't have a future. I have never gone to school. All I will ever be doing is either whoring myself out for the person who will pay the most for itor doing minimum wage jobs."

Her mask was crumbling and he saw the frantic child who just wanted to cry and give up. "Why didn't you try to kill yourself sooner if it was so bad?"

"I tried. And every time, some fuckin' good Samaritan decided to take me to the hospital, leaving me to pay with the bills for medications and treatment. I gave up…." She paused and Kaiba waited for her to speak. Her eyes were glittering as tears formed and fell.

"So when I saw them shooting, I was so excited, " her smile was sad. " It was my chance to leave this place and all I had to do was get myself in the path of a gun. But it didn't work. They kept shooting and I kept killing them. And…it wouldn't stop. I kept living…" she was sobbing too hard to talk and her normally beautiful face was squished together as she cried tears that were long overdue.

Kaiba pulled her closer to him and held her, resting his chin on her head. Eventually her trembling and whimpering ended and he heard her whisper, " I thought you hated being touched."

"I'm willing to make an exception."

She chuckled and he felt her smile as she pressed her head into his shoulder, staring out at the ocean.

**Author's Note: **Another chapter is done and we are getting closer to the end. That excites me. I have to work on college essays. Oh the joy of that. Here goes my analysis on the chapter.

Shizuka

I was writing the chapter and it occurred to me that Shizuka had connections with all of Jonouchi's friends. Wouldn't she be sad about it? Why hadn't I covered it? So thus I needed a reaction and I took the one that the story took room for. She forgot about it. I mean, it's sort of easy to forget about death when there are other things going on in your life. Plus it made an interesting parallel in the story. She condones Mai and Kaiba for the same thing she is doing.

Mai/Jonouchi/Kaiba

I have finally got around to setting the scene for the relationships. Kaiba and Jonouchi are very typical guys and don't realize their thoughts until someone points them out to them. Mai, on the other hand, knows her emotions about Jonouchi but not Kaiba. But hopefully she'll discover those soon.

In case you haven't realized, this is going to be Kaiba/Mai. I didn't intend on writing this couple but for this story, it works really well. And the more I think about it, Jonouchi and Mai having a relationship is a disaster waiting to happen. It's too cute to work.

Ignoring the romantic relationship between the three characters, I wanted to show the end of barriers. At the beginning, they don't trust each other but as time goes on, they are beginning to open up. Kaiba revels this by allowing Mai to touch him and Jonouchi going out on a date with Mai. Jonouchi and Kaiba were taking respectfully. The semi-trust extends to Shizuka and Mai as well. I think Mai would see Shizuka as someone she would trust. After all, Jonouchi was in a coma for a week. And although I didn't write it, I think a bond would have formed over the shared interest in his health. It would only get stronger now that Shizuka knows about her brother's feelings for Mai and Mai has to face them.

I hope you enjoyed the chapter and please review!


	9. Untitled

**Ave Maria**

_" I'm in love with you."_

_" I know," she smiled at him sadly and he sighed, gazing into her eyes, unsure of what to say._

_"Do you feel anything for me?" he asked._

_"No."_

_"Damnit! Why do you have to be so blunt?" _

_"I don't know what else to be, Jonouchi-kun."_

_Silence._

_"What is it?" _

_"I think of you as more of a friend then as a lover."_

_Silence._

_" It's Kaiba, isn't it?"_

_She nodded and he continued. " He isn't going to be admitting anything for you for a long time."_

_"I know."_

_" Are you willing to wait…maybe years for him to see what I see?"_

_She nodded._

_"I guess I can't stop you," he sighed. " Have a nice life, Mai." He began to walk away towards where his plane was loading_

_"Wait!" he heard her yell and she caught his arm, tugging him to her. She kissed him lightly on the lips and smirked. He brought his index tip to his lips, making sure what had just happened was real. " You're a good kid, Jou. Anybody would be lucky to have you."_

_"But not you?"_

_"Not me," she validated._

Mai believed in coincidences. She believed that everything had a reason for happening though it wasn't obvious. It could not be irony that a dueling competition, one that offered a ton of money, was being put on by Kaiba and was taking place on her birthday, November 20.

She hadn't seen Kaiba or Jonouchi since that fateful day in the summer, right before Jonouchi and Kaiba left to go back to Japan, when Jonouchi had confessed his love for her. Almost four months had passed and she hadn't got any word from anyone but Jonouchi who religiously e-mailed her. Jonouchi was going back to school and had caught up on most of the work he had missed from moping around his house all day. He ranted about the people at school and talked with passion about all the dueling he was doing and how much he enjoyed it. He was ranked number 1 in Japan because Kaiba had dropped off the scene. Jonouchi couldn't understand why Kaiba had done it when he finally had the opportunity to be #1 but Mai understood why. Kaiba lived for the challenge and claimed it was for the glory. He would win without any problems. Jonouchi was no match for him or was any other duelist including herself. Kaiba wanted competition to drive him to his highest potential and with Yugi gone, he had no one and dueling lost his interest. Instead, from Jonouchi's letters, Mokuba was learning how to duel and he was getting nearly as good as his brother. The company was occupying Kaiba's time and besides that, Jonouchi knew nothing more.

Her plane was late coming in and she swore the baggage claim had gone around twenty million times, and she still wasn't seeing her bag. It annoyed her greatly. She wanted to stare at her new bags that she had bought from the money she had taken in and scoff at all the pathetic duffel bags other people were using, a bag she once lived out of.

The shooting had done wonders for her life. It was sad that something so depressing and sickening could benefit her so well but it had. She was almost glad she wasn't killed. Some producer in New York City had decided she would make an excellent model and had offered her a job. She had passed it with flying colors and now worked as a runway model and had an exclusive contract with Victoria's Secret. She had extra money kicking around now and it was so nice to eat three meals a day. Her home was now a studio apartment that she was sharing with a few college students and she adored it. She didn't like people very much but the three girls were easy to get along with and she rarely saw them with her busy schedule and their equally hectic lifestyle.

She got fed up with waiting for her bag and all the people who were pushing to get closer, and she decided to ask about it. It turned out they had lost her bag and it was somewhere in Taiwan. She wanted to scream but she didn't have anything too important in it. Her deck and wallet were in her coat pockets and she had the address to her hotel on a piece of paper. She gave the guy her address and told him to forward it to her.

The streets of Domino City were busy and she submerged herself in the crowd that was leaving the airport and crossing the street to where the taxis were waiting and the actual city was. All the taxis were taken when she got across the street and she decided to walk instead of waiting.

The cold air hit the patch of leg between her skirt and boots, and she could feel it goose-bumping. She pulled her long fur-cut tighter around her and kept walking. She followed the stone fence that marked the boundaries of a park, coming to the business district. She had used her connections to get a room that wasn't a cubicle and she walked up the street.

Neon lights flashed everywhere and old men in suits were running around, either drunk or about to get drunk. Through the haze of speech that came from cell phones and drunken chatter, she could hear men wailing in the karaoke bars. It made her smile and she took out her strip of paper that listed off her address.

She knew her Japanese wasn't fabulous though by all conventional standards, she was fluent. She couldn't find any hotels with names that resembled the one she had written down. Flashing back to the conversation she had had with the guy on the phone, she was positive that she had written the right kanji and hiragana down, and if she hadn't, she had written out the full name and had translated it every way possible just in case. She looked at the address and it said it was on this street. She hated Japan sometimes. Even the addresses were screwed up and even if it was on this street, it could just as well not be. It could off a side street or in the general vicinity of the area. She growled, and she looked up at the sound of an amused laugh.

"What are you doing here, Kaiba?" she asked. He didn't look too surprised to see her, seeing that he had probably handled her reservations for the competition. He was in one of his traditional trench coats except it was lined in fur to keep him warm. Snowflakes were tangled in his hair and for the first time, she noticed it was snowing lightly. He must have been out there for a long time, she figured, if he had that many on him.

"I had to go to the police station and remind them to block off this road tomorrow. And what are you doing here?"

"Looking for my hotel," she handed him the piece of paper. " Know where it is?"

His eyes skimmed over it. " Nope." He looked up at her and gave an almost smile. " You can stay with me if you want."

"Isn't that a conflict of interest?"

"No."

Mai smiled. " I'd love to then."

"Good. You're going to have to walk a few blocks though."

"I don't mind," she reassured him and he led out of the business district and back to the stonewall which he nimbly jumped over and then, like a gentleman, helped her over.

"The mansion is on the other side of the park," he offered as an explanation.

"So how you been?" she asked as they trudged through the piles of dead leaves. The seasons were beginning to change in Japan from fall to winter, and though it was not nearly as drastic as it was in America, she found it beautiful to watch. The trees were bare and so the sky, which was so rarely seen, was apparent. She could see all the stars and the snow that seemed to be headed right towards her like bullets.

"Alright. The tournament and trying to get the Kaiba Land's in America to function without my constant supervision have been taking up most of my time."

"Did you have to visit America?"

"Several times."

"And you didn't think to visit me?" she didn't bother to hide her annoyance in her voice. She had wanted to see him. She wanted him to realize his feelings because she couldn't be the one making the first move. It had to be Kaiba because he was the one with the intimacy issues.

"I saw your show for Victoria Secret." He said it like it was a consolation prize. In its own way, it sort of was. It was televised across America and she got to march down a runway in nothing but panties and a bra and Angel Wings. It was empowering and incredibly fun to do.

"And did you enjoy it?"

He didn't make eye contact with her. "Yeah." A blush was staining his cheeks. He looked adorable.

She changed the subject "How was your birthday?"

"Uneventful. Mokuba wanted to throw me a birthday party to celebrate me turning 18 but we couldn't think of anyone to invite. Instead I ended up watching movies with him and Jonouchi."

" That must have been boring."

"It was but somewhat relaxing."

Mai smiled at his comment and they both fell silent as they walked up the hill. His house, she remembered, was on the other side. She didn't know if when they got to his house, he would fall silent and return to ignoring her. She decided to skip ahead and just ask what was bugging her.

"Why did you hold a competition?" she asked, stopping at the foot of the hill.

Kaiba walked a few feet before realizing she wasn't moving, and he turned around. " I like to see people duel."

"Why did you choose for the opening day to be on my birthday?"

"I didn't know…"

"Bullshit!" Mai interrupted him. " You researched me. I know you must have found my birth date in it somewhere."

"And if I did arrange this on purpose?" Kaiba answered.

Mai stepped forward. Kaiba remained frozen in his spot. " I am just curious why."

"I don't know." She took another step. She was close enough that she could feel the warmth radiating off him and his coat brushing against hers as the wind carried the loose fabric. " I wanted to see you."

"Why?"

Their breath was mingling. Kaiba looked scared, eyes wide like a deer caught in the headlights, and Mai knew it was only his stubbornness that kept him from running away. " What if I don't want to answer that?" he whispered.

"I want you to."

His eyes fluttered shut and he exhaled. Mai wondered if she went too far. She was scared he was emotionally shutting down, something he did rather well when he felt threatened. His eyes opened again.

"I think I like you in a not-so-friendly way," he muttered, looking up at the sky. Mai wanted to laugh at his word choice. It made him sound like a nerd but she knew Kaiba wasn't the most articulate person when it came to his feelings. He probably didn't know how to say it without sounding weird.

"Thank you," she whispered, leaning her head on his shoulder. She hoped he wouldn't move away and he managed to stay still though she could see his eyes flitting around nervously. " I needed to hear that." She lifted up her head and took a step back to give him some space.

"I don't understand why you like me," he mumbled, eyes finally meeting hers. " I'm not anything special or I can't give you what you want."

"What do I want, Kaiba-kun?"

"Seto," he corrected instantly.

Mai couldn't help but smile. "What do I want, Seto?"

"You deserve someone who wouldn't flinch every time you touch them and can touch you without forcing themselves to do it. You deserve someone who can spend time with you and not think of all the time they are wasting because they aren't working. You deserve…"

Mai shushed him. " Answer a question for me. Do you want to touch me?"

"Yes."

"And do you long for touch?"

It took longer for Kaiba to answer. " Yes."

Mai smiled at him. "Then it's okay. I wouldn't like you if you weren't flawed."

"But…"

"No buts," she interrupted him. " I like you, Seto Kaiba, and you are going to accept that."

The smile that graced his face was almost creepy because it didn't match his normally stoic features. Mai thought it was beautiful and she smiled.

"I'm not perfect, Seto. I don't pretend to be. I have issues as do you and I have yet to face them. I want to face them with you."

Kaiba just stared at her and she laughed, trying to lighten the mood. " Come on. Let's go back to your house."

He nodded, and ever so slowly, grabbed her mittened hand. She looked at him in surprise and he nodded.

They held hands the rest of the way to his house.

**Author's Note**

And I am done. Yes!

I know it's short but I thought it worked. I wrote three drafts to this. I didn't finish the first two and they were both longer then this.

I wanted Kaiba and Mai to kiss but I would have to write like seven more chapters to get that to that point. Kaiba has too many issues to work through to do anything more then hold hands.

It sort of felt like I was writing a bad soap opera but that's alright. I got it done. The story is done. I am content now. Now to say my observations.

Mai's approach to Kaiba

Mai is a Scorpio. Scorpio's, by nature, are intense and aggressive. That is why I chose her to take her particular approach to getting Kaiba to admit his feelings. They intimidate and try to frighten the opposition. I know that, a Scorpio, tend to use the stare down technique to get what I want. The less one says, the scarier it is. People rarely get away without doing what I want them to do when I do it.

Jonouchi, the puppy

Kaiba calls Jonouchi a mutt often in fanfiction and in the series, it is similar in tone and name. I want to say make inu but I am too lazy to look it up. I find it interesting how much it is used even when Kaiba isn't in the scene with Jonouchi. As I was writing the first draft, I was doing a scene where Jonouchi confesses his feelings and Mai thinks about Jonouchi, and in a way, she is the mother dog and he is her puppy. It occurred to me that Jonouchi truly is a puppy. He doesn't think, relying in instinct to guide him. He follows the person with power and strives to become like them, like a child idolizes their parent.

Kaiba vs. Jonouchi

Both of the males have issues. But yet, despite Kaiba being introverted and therefore drawing inside of himself when he encounters emotional turmoil, and Jonouchi being extroverted, truly loving being around people and appearing more open, Kaiba's issues are much more open in the series. It's not only that they are shown more often because of Noa or the Big Five, but Kaiba, despite how much he hides them, radiates brooding and darkness. Jonouchi doesn't appear to have any issues but I think deep down, Jonouchi has a lot more issues then Kaiba does. They may not be as serious or long-suffering as Kaiba's but they're there.

The meaning of the shooting

An aspect of writing is not telling but showing. I tell too much but I wanted to add this in. Kaiba never finds his meaning of the shooting. I meant to put in what he discovers, now that they have had time to reflect upon it but I couldn't find a place so I tried to show it.

All horrible events have no reason for them happening. It's not God or some higher purpose. All it really is, is some stupid selfish people deciding to hurt people for no other reason then they believe it is the right thing to do or they want people to suffer as much as they are. There is no purpose to it. But the true reason why it has to happen in the end, and why if we were given the chance to redo events in history if there was a time machine, I would think it would be stupid to re-invent those moments, is that it brings change. We begin to focus on our life. It opens doors we didn't realize were open. We see things for what they are and what they could be because hell, we just died. We want to live now.

For Kaiba, it was seeing Yugi and himself for the people they were, not the people he had built them up to be. He finally sees himself as Jonouchi always has, a selfish billionaire who doesn't give a crap, and he works on changing them. He admits he liked Yugi and he is working on becoming a better person.

For Jonouchi, it is reconciling with his sister. It is understanding the things he didn't notice before such as Kaiba's good points and the attitudes of his friends.

And for Mai, her lesson is that she needs to live. She spends her time counting off the seconds until her death. She gets a second chance because of the shooting. She is able to change her unfortunate circumstances into something great.  
And ultimately, all of them learn to trust.

I hope you enjoyed my entire story and that you review. I really enjoyed writing this and for once in my life, I feel like I have grown as a writer. This is the first story I ever really tried to keep the characters as they are in the series and thought about the implications of what I write.

Thank you for sharing this journey with me


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